An Iranian sex-shop owner convicted of involvement in the Paris assassination of a minister of the ousted Iranian shah abandoned his appeal on Thursday, according to his lawyer.
66-year-old Ahmad Jayhooni, was to have appeared in court Friday to begin the appeal proceedings, however decided to pull out at the last minute, the lawyer said.
He did not give a reason for his client's decision, which in effect confirms his 17-year prison term, according to AFP.
Jayhooni, the owner of a sex shop in Germany was found guilty in June of giving "help and assistance" to the killers of Reza Mazlouman.
Mazlouman, a deputy minister for culture under the shah, had been sentenced to death by the Islamic government of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Mazlouman, who left Iran in 1982 after his death sentence and ran an opposition newspaper from a Paris suburb, was shot dead in May 1996.
Even though a special terrorist court concluded Jayhooni did not directly order the murder, it heard testimony from French counter-intelligence operatives that he was an agent for the Iranian secret service and helped prepare the slaying.
Jayhooni was said to have spent three years gaining his victim's trust and friendship, said to be a common "Trojan Horse" technique used by the Iranian secret service to get close to its targets.
Since Iran's Islamic revolution of 1979, which ousted the shah, several opponents have been murdered in France, a preferred country of exile, notably former Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar in 1991.
Investigators said most of the killings followed a similar pattern. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
