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Court documents: Secret Service foils attempt to gain access to U.N.

September 22, 1998
Web posted at: 11:20 p.m. EDT (0320 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A complaint filed Monday by federal prosecutors said the U.S. Secret Service foiled a plan by two men to gain access to the U.N. General Assembly this week.

According to the complaint, one of the two unidentified men is believed to be an active member of the Mujaheddin e-Khalq (MEK), listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization. The MEK opposes the Iranian government.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and other high-level officials arrived in New York on Saturday, and Khatami addressed the General Assembly on Monday.

Two suspected female accomplices have been charged in the case, but federal law enforcement authorities are still seeking the two men and no charges have been filed against them.

The complaint charges the two women, both of Iranian descent, with lying to federal agents investigating the two men.

The document says the two men tried to gain access to the United Nations by applying for press passes. In their credential application, the men said they were affiliated with an organization called "Art Vision," later determined to be a bogus organization.

Law enforcement and U.N. sources told CNN one man carried a Swedish and the other a Canadian passport. The complaint against the women, Elham Kiamanesh and Elham Zanjani, does not allege what the men had planned to do had they gained access to the United Nations.

A diplomatic source told CNN the men applied for credentials on September 15, 1998, saying they were working on a documentary. After a European source advised the United Nations that one of the men worked for MEK in Sweden, the request for press credentials was denied.



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