U.S FEDERAL BAR TO PRESENT HISTORIC
AWARDS TO EUROPEAN COLLEAGUES
For the first time in its nearly one hundred year history,
the US Federal Bar Association will be presenting an award for professional
excellence to two European colleagues from Germany. The Rule of Law Award,
presented by the Federal Bar Association Southern District of New York
Chapter and Federal Bar Association Federal Litigation Section, was created
to honor the inspiring professional conduct of the lead German Federal
Prosecutor, Bruno Jost, in the historic trial of what came to be known as the
Mykonos case, a trial that lasted for nearly four years from 1993-1997. The
second recipient of the award will be Alexander von Stahl, Sr., Germany’s
Chief Federal Prosecutor (1991-1993), who steadfastly supported the
investigation and the work of Bruno Jost, and paved the way for the landmark
judgment entered by Berlin’s High Criminal Court in April 1997.
The trial came on the heels of the gruesome and high
profile assassination of four Iranian opposition leaders on the evening of
September 17, 1992 at the little-known Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin. The
chairman of Iran’s Democratic Party of Kurdistan and two of his top
associates who had come to Germany to attend the annual Conference of the
Social Democratic Party were among the dead. What started as a peaceful
dinner came to a sudden halt when two darkly clad men with machine guns burst
through the restaurant’s entrance and opened fire on the guests. In the
aftermath of the shooting, Germany’s morning papers implicated connections to
the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. Others suspected a Kurdish rival group.
What neither the press nor the lawyers who began investigating the case knew
at the time was that these dead men were not the only ones. Since 1980, over
one hundred Iranian exiles had disappeared, or been assassinated
throughout the US, Europe and elsewhere. For Western politicians
who were negotiating with Tehran to boost trade and advance their careers,
pursuing rumors of secret terror campaigns against exiles was seen as
inconvenient. Thus, these cases remained “open” and their murders treated as
mysteries. The victims’ families feared that the Mykonos trial would be no
exception.
Hours later, an unassuming and incorruptible federal
prosecutor, Bruno Jost, arrived at the scene and charted his own independent
investigation, despite all rumors and threats. What followed was an
investigation, trial, and a judgment that shook both Europe and Iran, and
which has been called one of the most significant European trials since the
Nuremberg trial of World War II, a trial which ultimately achieved something
few could have predicted—justice.
The trial, as recounted in the acclaimed non-fiction book ASSASSINS OF THE TURQUOISE PALACE, forced Tehran to cease its terror operations against Iranian dissidents in Europe. The landmark verdict in 1997, culminating in the shut down of all EU member embassies in Tehran, is an essential reminder that justice and rule of law can be more effective than bombs to end the belligerence of a tyrannical state.
The Federal Bar Association’s awards event in New York
will explore the Mykonos case’s implications for relations with Iran
today. The event will feature discussion panelists Roya Hakakian,
author of the 2011 acclaimed non-fiction book documenting the case, Assassins
of the Turquoise Palace, and J.D. Bindenagel, former U.S. Ambassador and
Director of Central European Affairs for Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. The discussion will be moderated by U.S. District Judge
Joanna Seybert of the Eastern District of New York. Opening remarks
will be given by Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska of the Southern
District of New York.
The awards event, entitled Upholding the Rule of Law
in Germany’s Federal Republic—The Mykonos Case, will begin
promptly on February 25th at 5:30 p.m. at the Daniel
Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, located at 500 Pearl Street,
Manhattan, and will end at 8:00 p.m. Admission is free but space is
limited. To secure seating, RSVP to Erin Rodgers, Federal Bar
Association, (517) 481-9118 or erodgers@fedbar.org,
as soon as possible. A valid photo ID is required for Courthouse entry.
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Copyright law, fine art and navigating the courts. All practice, no theory.Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2012-2013) by Raymond J. Dowd
