Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld flew to Teheran this afternoon to protest the execution of Jewish community leader Habib Elkanian and to try to assist four Iranian Jews still held in “revolutionary Islamic” jails.
Klarsfeld said at Paris Airport that Elkanian’s execution “strikes every Jew throughout the world and cannot be accepted passively by any of us.” The millionaire Jewish industrialist was shat by a firing squad on May 9 after a revolutionary court found him “guilty” of ties with Israel and Zionism and of corruption.
Klarsfeld, a lawyer, said he plans to see Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to “explain to him what the Jews have gone through during this generation.” He said he also hopes he will be allowed to meet the four Iranian Jews in prison and assist them if they are tried.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi said earlier this week that Iran “has the right to try and execute criminals against humanity.” He added, “In the Western world they still chase Nazi criminals 34 years after the end of the war. “Klarsfeld said he plans to explain the difference between the men tried in Iran and the war criminals he helps chase.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
