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He shares with Salman Rushdie the distinction of having a price on his head. TIME has obtained a copy of a document, dated March 16, 1993, that promises a "considerable financial reward" for Ganji's "assassination." Written on government letterhead and signed by state prosecutor Moussawi Tabrizi, it is addressed to Fallahian's intelligence ministry. The document accuses Ganji of "plotting against Islam" and quotes Khamenei as decreeing that "this man is an apostate and a corrupt man, who must be eliminated." The document adds that "the President of the Republic ((Rafsanjani)) has been informed of this obligatory decree." French intelligence experts, operating from a photocopy, are cautious about pronouncing on the document's authenticity but say it contains "no glaring errors."
Western intelligence sources say foreign assassinations are carried out by a special branch of the Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds (Jerusalem) Force, headed by Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi. The foreign ministry typically provides diplomatic cover, material support and logistical assistance. The Quds Force, which has its headquarters in Tehran, is said to use bases like the Imam Ali department in northern Tehran to train Iranian and foreign recruits.
In a videotaped 1994 confession that TIME was able to view in Istanbul, Mehmet Ali Bilici, a militant Turkish fundamentalist, described his terrorist training at an Iranian camp near Qum. He said he and other trainees received basic military instruction, followed by courses in intelligence-trade craft, coded communications, explosives and covert operations, and acknowledged that he received "direct orders" from the Iranians to conduct "military operations on Turkish soil." Bilici has admitted to kidnapping two Iranian opposition figures who were turned over to VEVAK agents and later killed.
"The Iranians are extraordinarily determined in their efforts to assassinate members of their opposition abroad," says Paris assistant district attorney Patrick Lalande. "They will tell you that they treat their opponents abroad just as they treat them at home and that this is a purely domestic affair." Western governments do not agree but find it hard to stand up to Iran's state-backed terror. The Bakhtiar case, with a trail of evidence that leads right into Tehran's ministries, is a major test of France's resolve. The trial, which could start as soon as next June, is more likely to open in the fall and could possibly be delayed until early 1995. Given France's recent "expulsion" of Rajavi's suspected killers, some skeptics wonder if the case will ever get to court.
French prosecutors insist that nothing can derail the judicial process at this point. Yet they admit that a conviction could set off diplomatic reverberations -- and, perhaps, even a replay of the September 1986 bombing wave that left 12 dead and at least 250 injured in Paris.
Such worries do not deter Bruguiere. The antiterrorist crusader, who survived an abortive 1987 grenade attack and packs a .357 Magnum for his own protection, is hard at work on a new investigation. On Dec. 20, he arrested two alleged VEVAK agents for plotting to kill an opposition figure in Paris. One of the men is also implicated in the 1990 murder of Ganji's aide Cyrus Elahi. Judge Bruguiere is giving the mullahs no rest.