Threat to Rushdie `irrevocable'

AFP

Threat to Rushdie `irrevocable'

Tehran - All Muslim and Islamic countries have a duty to carry out a fatwa ordering the execution of Salman Rushdie, according to Ayatollah Hassan Sanei, head of the 15-Khordad religious foundation that put a $2m (£1.2m) price on Rushdie's head four years ago. He said the religious decree was an "irrevocable sentence". EU ministers agreed this month to offer Tehran increased trade links in exchange for a commitment not to carry out the fatwa. The Iranian President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is visiting India, said his country was not sending death squads to kill Rushdie.