Trial Of Suspect In Iranian Scientist's Murder Opens In Tehran

If I were Mossad, would I have let this guy live to testify that Mossad was responsible? I think not...so I'm wondering if Mossad were being framed?

Trial Of Suspect In Iranian Scientist's Murder Opens In Tehran
The trial of an Iranian man accused of killing an Iranian nuclear scientist last year in a bomb attack and having links to Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has opened in Tehran, Iranian media reported Tuesday.

According to media reports, Ali Jamali Fashi has already confessed to the killing of Masoud Mohammadi, a professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University, and admitted to receiving orders from Mossad to carry out the killing along with five others, which he did not carry out.

Fashi is accused of having received training and money from Mossad for killing the nuclear scientist. He has been charged with moharebeh, which means 'enmity against God' and faces death penalty if convicted.

"I (repeatedly) met with Mossad's agents at the Zionist regime's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey," Fashi was quoted as saying during Tuesday's hearing. He also said that he received up to $10,000 each time he met Israeli agents and admitted to providing Mossad with information either directly in Turkey or indirectly from Tehran.

Masoud Mohammadi was killed in a bomb explosion near his home in Teheran's Qeytariyeh district on 12 January 2010. He was killed by a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked near his home.

Iran's foreign ministry had then said that "in the initial investigation, signs of the triangle of wickedness by the Zionist regime, America and their hired agents, are visible in the terrorist act." But the United States dismissed the allegation and the State Department in a statement described the Iranian claim as "absurd."

However, Iran announced in 2011 January that it had dismantled a network "comprising of Israeli spies and terrorists" and arrested "the main agents" responsible for the nuclear scientist's killing. It is not clear what happened to the other two suspects.

Iranian authorities claimed that the busting of the alleged spy-ring had inflicted "heavy damage on Israel's information and security structures," adding that the successful operation was carried out after "months of complicated measures and access to sources of the Israeli regime."

In addition to Mohammadi, several other Iranian scientists have been killed or injured in attacks in recent months. The latest among them was Daryoush Rezaei, a physicist at a Tehran University who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside his home in Tehran in July.

Prior to that incident, one Iranian nuclear scientist was killed and another injured in two separate but identical bomb attacks in Tehran in November 2010. The scientist killed in one of those attacks was Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering department of the Shahid Beheshti University.

The scientist injured in the second attack on the same day was identified as Fereydoon Abbasi, a nuclear physicist who did research at the Defense Ministry. Soon after those attacks, Iran blamed Israeli and other foreign intelligence agents for the incidents, alleging that the attacks were part of efforts by the West to undermine the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program.

Though Iran insists that its controversial uranium enrichment is aimed at producing fuel for a medical reactor in Tehran, the West suspects such claims to be a cover-up for producing weapon-grade uranium.

Iran had already survived four sets of sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council following its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The last one was imposed in June 2010 over Teheran's refusal to accept a UN-proposed deal to ease international concerns over its disputed nuclear program.