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ONLY $6 FOR 1 YEAR Hurry, offer ends soon LOG IN ADVERTISEMENT NEWS EL RUKNS SOLICITED KHOMEINI, TAPES HINT By Liz Sly Chicago Tribune • Oct 31, 1987 at 12:00 am Player Version: 7.12.0 Player Key: 7WQ1xQNF-vJYVOHOP Configured as Smart Player: true Playlist Type: STANDARD Float Mode: onLoad volume_off -3:41 sd share closed_caption fullscreen Auto (225p) 225p 360p Subtitles Off Subtitles EN Top Videos: - Kiko Mizuhara’s Guide to Flawless Skin, and the Perfect Cat Eye Actor and model Kiko Mizuhara gives Vogue an inside look at her complexion-perfecting makeup routine, and offers advice on tracing a precise feline flick.Filmed at The Standard, High Line El Rukn gang members approached Iran`s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for money after their efforts to solicit funds from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi ran into difficulties, according to testimony Friday in U.S. District Court. Jeff Fort, the gang`s leader, was told that Khomeini had already agreed to meet with gang members by Melvin Mayes, a gang general, according to tape- recorded telephone conversations. The tape was played Friday at the trial of Fort and four El Rukn members on charges of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism for Libya. Tramell Davis, an accused gang member turned government witness helping the prosecution translate the conversations for jurors, testified that ''old friend'' is code for Khomeini, 87, while Gadhafi, 45, is called ''young friend.'' ''He already expecting us,'' Mayes tells Fort. ''Yeah, that sounds real good, I like our old friend,'' Fort replies. Davis testified that Khomeini had approved the idea of El Rukn members meeting with an Iranian representative to obtain money. Top S It was not clear whether gang members planned to travel to Iran-referred to in the conversations as ''the motherland''-or would meet a representative in Washington. In dozens of conversations played this week, jurors heard the gang plotting different means of persuading Gadhafi to give them money. Two gang members, Reico Cranshaw and Leon McAnderson, visited Libya in March, 1986, and returned saying Gadhafi had promised the El Rukns $2.5 million. But by the end of April, when the conversation regarding Khomeini took place, the tape has Fort sounding frustrated that no money had materialized. Fort accuses Cranshaw of making promises to Gadhafi that the El Rukns couldn`t keep. Cranshaw confirms that the only real commitment he made was that the El Rukns would make threatening phone calls on behalf of the Libyans but without any reciprocal promises of money. Throughout April, Fort directed gang members to impress the Libyans by preparing news clippings of violent incidents around the U.S. that the El Rukns would claim credit for, and by taping a video in which gang generals pledged allegiance to Gadhafi. Besides Fort, Cranshaw and McAnderson, the defendants are Alan Knox and Roosevelt Hawkins. Mayes was also charged but he fled, reportedly to Libya.