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Iran to sue Israel for scientist's murder
January 21, 2011
Iran said on Monday it will sue its archfoe Israel for the murder last year in Tehran of senior nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran's complaint against the Zionist regime will be lodged to international bodies soon," Iran's acting foreign minister and atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Salehi said Tehran had "finished gathering evidences of the Zionist regime's involvement in the assassination of the Iranian scientist." He did not elaborate.
Last week Iranian media reported that an alleged killer of Ali Mohammadi had been trained in Israel and had been apprehended
Majid Jamali Fash, identified by Iran as "the main element" behind Ali Mohammadi's murder, was quoted as saying on state television's website that he was trained by Israeli military officers.
Iran's Intelligence Minister Heyder Moslehi said on January 11 that Iran had broken up a cell working for Israel's spy service, Mossad, and arrested 10 people, adding that Jamali Fash was one of them.
In January 2010, Ali Mohammadi, a professor of particle physics at the prestigious Tehran University, was killed in a bomb attack outside his home. Iran blamed this on "mercenaries" in the pay of Israel and the United States.
Iran has also accused the intelligence services of Israel, the United States and Britain of being behind bomb attacks against two top nuclear scientists on November 26.
Majid Shahriari, a senior scientist involved in Iran's nuclear activities, was killed by a bomb placed against his car, while Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, another nuclear expert, was wounded in a similar attack.
Western governments suspect Iran's nuclear programme masks a drive for an atomic weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has steadfastly denied.
Israel and its ally the United States have not ruled out a military strike against Iran to stop its nuclear programme.
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