Military court revokes death penalty, changes sentences for 11 former intelligence agents

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's military court revoked the death sentences of three former intelligence agents on Tuesday and lightened the punishments of most of the other 12 who had already been convicted in the killing of political dissidents, Iranian media reported Tuesday.

Mostafa Kazemi and Mehrvad AlIkhani had their terms reduced from death to four life terms each for ordering the killing of four political dissidents. Two other former agents were sentenced to 10 years each, and seven other agents were ordered to serve terms ranging from 2 1/2 to six years, Tehran radio reported.

 The four remaining men were acquitted.

 The intelligence agents admitted killing four Iranian dissidents, beginning with the Nov. 22, 1998, stabbing deaths of Dariush Forouhar and his wife, Parvaneh, who ran a small opposition party. In the following weeks, writers Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh and Mohammad Mokhtari were kidnapped and apparently strangled, their bodies dumped on the outskirts of Tehran.

 The killings were seen as part of the power struggle between hard-liners, who dominate the ministry and other government offices, and reformists allied to popular President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites).

 In the initial verdict, three agents were sentenced to death, five to life imprisonment and seven to jail terms ranging from 2 1/2 to 10 years. Three defendants were acquitted.

 The Supreme Court rejected the guilty verdicts and remanded the case to the military court that handed down the original verdicts.

 In revoking the death sentences, the military court said the families of the victims had pardoned the assassins so the sentences were reduced, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.