Protest against Iran executions

Press, 4 August 1981, Page 6

Protest against Iran executions

NZPA-Reuter Bonn Opponents of Iran's revolutionary Government staged a brief occupation of the Iranian Embassy in Bonn yesterday, breaking windows and damaging offices before police ejected them. About 150 people, most of them expatriate Iranian students, forced their way into the building soon after it opened, said a police spokesman. Sixty people were arrested after the police moved in to clear the embassy, the police spokesman said. Fist-fights broke out between demonstrators and embassy employees and between the police and the demonstrators. There were no reports of serious injuries. An embassy employee said that the occupation lasted about 10 minutes. He said that no embassy personnel were injured, but accused the occupiers of damaging the building, breaking windows. and

smashing office equipment. During the takeover,- a man claiming to be a spokesman for the occupiers telephoned the Associated Press to say that the action was intended to show solidarity for the ‘(people's Mujahedin," which opposes the Islamic regime led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny. The demonstrators were protesting against the execution of members of the Islamic Leftist Mujahedin-e-Khalq guerrilla organisation by the Teheran authorities, the caller said. The Mujahedin's leader.

Masoud Rajavi. fled to Paris last week with the ousted former President. Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, and vowed to fight to overthrow Iran’s revolutionary Government. A police spokesman said the demonstrators daubed slogans against Ayatollah Khomeiny on the embassy walls. Eye-witnesses said that the police cleared the six-storey embassy building, close to the West German Justice Ministry on one of the city’s main thoroughfares, after a 30-minute fight. Embassy officials complained that although they raised the alarm, using an automatic buzzer, at 9.15 a.m. it took the police almost 15 minutes to arrive.