188. Editorial Note
Telegram 169774 to Tehran, April 6, 1967, informed the Embassy that the Justice Department review of the Gudarzian criminal case had concluded that the only realistic course of action involved proceedings based on forgery of the two large checks bearing the names of the Prince and Princess. Chances of conviction, however, were not considered good in the absence of testimony from Ebtehaj. In light of previous Embassy arguments that a Gudarzian acquittal would be worse than no trial at all, the Department had concluded that it should not ask the Department of Justice to pursue the criminal case further. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was prepared to commence deportation proceedings immediately upon being authorized to do so by the Justice Department. Unless the Embassy objected to these conclusions, it was requested to advise the appropriate Iranian officials of this decision and the reasons for it. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 15–1 IRAN)
In telegram 3981 from Tehran, April 11, Meyer responded that the Embassy remained convinced that no trial was better than an unsuccessful trial, and that it concurred in deportation proceedings against Gudarzian and Kushan. Meyer expressed appreciation for the Justice Department’s all-out attempt to build a case against Gudarzian, and noted that the Embassy would do its best to explain this “failure” to the Shah. (Ibid.)