Mykonos restaurant assassinations
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In the Mykonos restaurant assassinations of 17 September 1992, Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany.
In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court declared that the assassination had been ordered by Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian[1] and issued an international arrest warrant, and with knowledge of supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Ayatollah Rafsanjani. This led to a diplomatic crisis between the governments of Iran and of several European countries, which lasted until November 1997.
In a 2004 letter to Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (then mayor of Tehran) objected to the commemorative plaque in front of the restaurant, calling it an insult to Iran.[2]
Despite international and domestic protests, Darabi and Rhayel were released from prison on 10 December 2007 and deported back to their home countries.[3]
