UK police urged to prosecute Iranian accused of backing Rushdie fatwa

Officers are reviewing a dossier accusing Sayed Ataollah Mohajerani, who lives in London, of encouraging terrorism, the Guardian newspaper writes. 

The Metropolitan police is being urged to crack down on Iranian terrorism in the UK by prosecuting a former senior Iranian government official accused of advocating the fatwa against Sir Salman Rushdie.

The Metropolitan police has been studying a legal dossier accusing Sayed Ataollah Mohajerani, who lives in Britain, of encouraging terrorism contrary to the 2006 Terror Act. He denies the claims.

Four months after being presented with the dossier, the police have told those making the accusation that the complex issues raised require considerable resources and more time to investigate.

The fatwa was imposed on Rushdie by the previous Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, in February 1989 and has never been revoked. Last August, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times at a literary festival in Chautauqua, New York.

The UK has promised a new harsher line against Iran in the wake of the execution there of the former Iranian deputy defence minister Alireza Akbari, but has so far only recalled its ambassador from Tehran and imposed sanctions on the Iranian prosecutor general.

Read the full article on the Guardain.