Motive for Iranian student's killing a mystery
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/05/justice/texas-iranian-student-killing/index.html?iref=obinsite
Houston (CNN) -- Homicide detectives here say they are exploring every possible avenue, as they investigate the assassination-style killing of an Iranian dissident in mid-January..........
Bagherzadeh had come to Houston in 2007, her friends said. Before her arrival, they say, she had traveled throughout Europe, living in Paris and, for a time, in Budapest.
Her father had once worked for the Iranian Oil ministry, according to police.
In 2010, not long after the disputed presidential elections in Iran, Bagherzadeh joined a group called SabzHouston, formed to protest the election results. She was videotaped by a reporter for the Houston Chronicle while on a street corner, saying she was showing support for "brothers and sisters suffering in Iran."
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"Right now ... because of obvious reasons, we're exploring those issues that she was advocating," Padilla said.
Houston police on Monday announced they have doubled the reward from $5,000 to $10,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Bagherzadeh's death.
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Burton, a former State Department expert on counterterrorism, said the fact that the victim lived in Paris and traveled widely in Europe could have made her far more important to Iranian intelligence than her dissident activities in the United States.
"You have a 30-year-old woman who's spent time out of Iran, in Paris for example," he said, "What has she been doing? Was she more active overseas, for example, than we understand here? The Iranian intelligence service has a very strong network, a very strong collection network in Paris specifically. They are trying to keep tabs on their dissidents."
Houston police said they are stuck and will follow any lead, even those involving Iranian conspiracies, if it will lead them to the killer.
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