Hassan Sanei (photo), for 50 years the head of the 15th of Khordad Foundation, the agency that has long offered a huge reward to anyone who manages to slay Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, died in July. He was 89. The proffered reward is now $3.3 million. Meanwhile, news reports in the US say the prosecution is now looking into the theory that the knife-wielder who tried to kill Rushdie last year was put up to the job by the Islamic Republic and not just inspired by the Islamic Republic.
