Honorable Mr. Klaus Wowereit,
Mayor and Head of State of Berlin, Germany

We have heard through the news media that the Mayor of Tehran, Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad in a letter to you warned of the repercussions of installing a Memorial Plaque in memory of those killed on September 1992 in Mykonous Restaurant calling it an insult to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

What is the reality?

The Supreme Court of the State of Berlin, after 246 days of deliberation, in spite of all political and economic consideration by the authorities, in its final decision came to the conclusion that the Islamic Republic of Iran had ordered the killing of 3 Iranian-kurdish Activists and their translator.

Unfortunately 8 years after this ruling by the court, there are reports that the German Government plans to repatriate two of the planners and enforcers of this crime back to Iran. These two people, Kazem Darabi and Abbas Rayel were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Mr. Wowereit, the Mykonous Court as well as the brave prosecutors were a motivation for the opposition movement to escalate their struggle for freedom and human rights. These were neither the first political murders nor the last. But the Mykonous trial was the first to defend the rule of law in Germany and the world. Now any retreat by you and the German government, albeit for a better relationship with the government of Iran, will encourage additional State-sponsored terrorism.

The signatories of this letter, in the name of all the victims of state-sponsored terrorism, ask you and your government not to submit to the pressures of the Iranian Rulers. We remind you that following the shooting of June 2, 1967, it was the mayor of Berlin, Heinrich Albertz along with his colleagues Professor Helmut Gollwitzer, Karsten Colpe, W. D. Narr, Ulrich Albrecht, and the famous German Journalist Ms. Carola Stern who founded the Iranian Committee in Defense of political Prisoners and Human Rights. Let us not forget the memories of Heinrich Albertz and continue with the good tradition of the Berliners.

Executive Committee of EJI
International Relations