The murderers on trial
Zeynalabedine Sarhadi was an Iranian agent who, on 6 August 1991, took part in the murder of former prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar at his home in Paris, France. He had the distinction of being a great-nephew of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the President of Iran at the time of the murder. Sarhadi, Ali Vakili Rad, and another assassin stabbed Bakhtiar and his secretary to death, and Sarhadi and Rad were arrested in Switzerland; in December 1994, he was acquitted.