Unknown assailants on Monday night stabbed the head of a leading Iranian reformist party, Mohammad Salamati, a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami, a source with the party said Tuesday.
"Mohammad Salamati, the secretary general of the reformist Islamic Revolution's Mujahideen Organization (IRMO) was attacked late Monday night near his residence in northern Tehran by two unidentified assailants," Feizollah Arab-Sorkhi told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
"The assailants had first snatched his briefcase and when he chased them to get his case back, he was injured by stabbing and the motion nerve of his left hand was cut," he said.
Police are investigating the case, he said.
In May, Salamati was found guilty of "spreading lies" and defamation by Tehran's press court in his capacity as the director of the Asr-e Maa (Our Era) magazine, said the agency.
He was also charged with spreading rumors late last year about an alleged conservative-led movement to impeach Khatami, in a speech he delivered at a Tehran university.
Salamati charged in December that conservatives were trying to impeach Khatami for being unable to carry out his constitutional duties.
The allegation was dismissed by the Tehran judiciary, which said that the person found to be behind the rumor would be "pursued by the courts." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
