Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – October 8, 2003

We went to the mosque of Tehran to give a speech at the Friday Imams' meeting. Mr. [Sidreza] Tagvi, [Chairman of Juma Imams Policy Council] welcomed. I gave an extended speech. They expressed passionate feelings. Although I jokingly said that these kinds of slogans belong to the common people, they did not give up.

I worked in my office until the evening. Dr. [Hasan] Habibi, [a member of the Expediency Council] came. He suggested that less people should be rejected in the elections so as not to reduce the prosperity of the elections. He had some material about nuclear issues and the government's weaknesses. He asked us to think about the future presidency.

Mr. Mohseni, the economic deputy of the Ministry of Information, came. He said, yesterday after the trial session of Mr. [Mohammed Reza Aghdam] Ahmadi from the ministry regarding the death of Zahra Kazemi and the announcement of her name, which was not supposed to be announced, the anti-espionage personnel of the ministry got angry. They rushed to the office of Mr. [Ali] Younesi, [Minister of Information]. They broke the windows and chanted against the minister (incompetent minister, resignation, resignation). The thought of resigning is serious among managers, because no matter how much they have asked for help from the leadership office, they have not received an answer. Therefore, he appealed and suggested that the Ministry intervene to eliminate the intrigue of the British and Norwegians in the Statoil issue.

Today in Afghanistan, between the forces of Atta Mohammad [Noor] and [Abd al-Rashid] Dostum, there was a conflict and many people were killed and injured.

Pakistan tested its second missile this week with a range of 700 km. News has been published that one of North Korea's nuclear scientists has been kidnapped by the West or China. They wrote, he said somewhere that he was busy making a bomb that could destroy the entire generation of whites.

The killing of Azam Tariq, the leader of Sipah Sahaba [Pakistan], along with several others, has caused a riot by his followers. They have caused damage and insulted Iran.

Mr. [Syed Mohammad] Khatami, in an interview with reporters today, criticized the behavior of the judiciary regarding the trial of the accused related to Zahra Kazemi. It is said that Mr. [Saeed] Mortazavi, [Tehran's prosecutor], should also be interrogated and a fair court should be established; Although the leadership in the recent meeting asked the heads of the three powers to refrain from controversial statements.