By Janine Zacharia
May 16, 2000
US Jewish groups are leading an effort to persuade the World Bank to postpone the transfer of $200 million in aid to Iran, as part of efforts to ensure a fair trial of 13 Jews charged with espionage.
The package, which is to fund Iranian sewage and rural development programs, is scheduled to be discussed by World Bank leaders on Thursday, a day after the trial's proceedings are expected to conclude.
"We have gotten quite a bit of support from Canada, the US, and others. We've not asked it to be cancelled, just that it be delayed," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
An Iranian judiciary official said yesterday that the 13 Jews, meeting under cover of their faith, had been collecting military and other sensitive information to pass to Israel for more than 15 years.
In the first detailed account of the accusations against Iranian Jews now on trial in Shiraz, Hossein Ali Amiri described a well organized ring that had wooed informants with wild parties, mapped military bases and even laid plans to contaminate the city's water supply.
Amiri, head of the local judiciary, told Reuters the state had overwhelming evidence to corroborate the confessions of eight suspects in closed-door hearings.
However Amiri said yesterday that none of the suspects faces the death penalty.
World leaders and Jewish groups have expressed skepticism at the truthfulness of the confessions, and complained at the barring of international impartial observers from the proceedings.
"All of the confessions are contradictory. All acknowledge they didn't have any confidential information. The lawyers for the Jews asked for an additional session in order to bring all the defendants together to show the contradictions," Hoenlein said.
A decision in the trial is expected one week after the end of testimony.
Israel has denied any links to the suspects.
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