Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990 TAG: 9003161908
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called the execution of Farzad Bazoft, 31, "an act of barbarism," and "a very, very grave and serious matter."
In the European Parliament in Strasbourg, members observed a minute's silence.
Bazoft, on assignment in Iraq for the London Observer, had been sentenced to death earlier this week by a revolutionary court on charges of spying for Israel. He had been arrested in September while posing as a doctor in an attempt to visit a secret military complex where an explosion reportedly had killed hundreds of people.
Bazoft had confessed on television to collecting military information for Israel, but withdrew the statement during his trial, saying that it had been given under duress.
British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd announced the recall of Ambassador Harold Walker Thursday, ordered the suspension of all planned ministerial visits and expelled Iraqi officers on military training courses here.
But he stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations or imposing immediate economic sanctions on Iraq.
The restraint was prompted by concern for 2,000 British residents in Iraq, and particularly for British nurse Daphne Parish, 53, sentenced this week to 15 years in prison as an accomplice to espionage. She had driven Bazoft to the military site south of Baghdad. The British government is appealing for a review of her sentence. An Iraqi who had traveled with them was given a 10-year sentence.
Shortly before his execution, Bazoft was visited by the British consul general in Baghdad, Robin Kealy. Bazoft gave Kealy a written message and repeated that he had been working as a journalist "going after a scoop."
Bazoft was born in Iran, but moved to England to complete his high school education and then stayed here. He was not a British citizen but was traveling on British documents.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein refused to yield to international pressure and spare Bazoft's life.
The Observer's editor, Donald Trelford, called on the world's media to boycott Iraq to protest the execution and out of respect "for a professional colleague who gave his life for trying to report the truth."
by CNB