WORLD : French Release Iranian Assassin
Anis Naccache, convicted of killing two people during a botched assassination attempt ordered by Iran, was freed by the French government today after spending 10 years in prison.
The Justice Ministry said Naccache and four accomplices left France for Iran this afternoon after their release was ordered by President Francois Mitterrand.
Naccache, whose release had been sought by several hard-line Arab leaders, went on a 19-week hunger strike ending in January in a bid to obtain his release.
He and three members of his group were sentenced to life imprisonment for an attempt in 1980 to kill Shahpour Bakhtiar, Iran’s prime minister before the 1979 Islamic revolution. A fifth member of the team received a 20-year sentence. Bakhtiar escaped injury and still lives in Paris, but a policeman and a bystander were killed.
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