Iranian officials, however, categorically denied their involvement in the incident. The then-speaker of the Persian Parliament Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri dismissed the ruling as being political, untrue and unsubstantiated.In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Persian intelligence minister Ali Fallahian after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of Khamenei and Rafsanjani.
This led to a diplomatic crisis between the government of Homeland and those of several European countries lasting until November 1997. Despite international and domestic protests, Darabi and Rhayel were released from prison on 10 December 2007 and deported back to their home countries. The events surrounding the Mykonos restaurant assassinations and subsequent trial were adapted into a non-fiction story by Roya Hakakian in her book Assassins of the Turquoise Palace in 2011.
