(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed outrage over the conclusions reached by a judge investigating the murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi. The judge found that no state institution was responsible for the killing and that it was the work of a single Intelligence Ministry agent who was interrogating her. The organisation repeated its call for […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed outrage over the conclusions reached by a judge investigating the murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi. The judge found that no state institution was responsible for the killing and that it was the work of a single Intelligence Ministry agent who was interrogating her. The organisation repeated its call for an independent inquiry with the participation of international experts.
The judge, Javad Esmaeli, attached to the office of the hardline Tehran Prosecutor Said Mortazavi, presented his report on 22 September 2003. He blamed an unnamed agent, who has been charged with Kazemi’s “semi-intentional” murder, implying that he hit Kazemi without intending to kill her.
“We are very suspicious of this report, conducted under the authority of Mortazavi, who has been implicated in this affair,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We hope that Parliament’s Article 90 Committee (which investigates public complaints against government bodies) will publish its own conclusions without making any compromises.”
“What does the Esmaeli report mean? Kazemi was held for 77 hours, during which she passed from the Prosecutor’s Office to the police and then to the Intelligence Ministry. The commission of inquiry set up by reformist President Mohammad Khatami said she was ‘beaten’ during the first few hours. How can Judge Esmaeli come to such a different conclusion? Why has only one person been charged? How did this person strike Kazemi without his superior knowing? How could no civilian or military official have been aware she was beaten?” Ménard demanded.
On 23 September, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham met his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, and was assured that Canadian officials and Kazemi’s family could take part in the trial, whose date has not been set. RSF hopes that neither the Iranian nor the Canadian government will accept Judge Esmaeli’s conclusions and that a thorough investigation will establish the identity of all those responsible for Kazemi’s death.
The case has become a political football between the reformists linked to President Khatami and the hardliners led by the country’s Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, thus preventing a proper inquiry. The Intelligence Ministry, which is close to the reformists, reacted angrily to the charging of one of its officials and reiterated a threat to release evidence pointing a finger at Mortazavi’s office.
Kazemi, who lived in Canada, was arrested on 23 June as she took pictures of prisoners’ families in front of Tehran’s Evin prison. She died on 10 July from a brain haemorrhage caused by a beating while in detention. After officials tried to cover up the cause of her death, Vice-President Ali Abtahi admitted on 16 July that she had been beaten.
Her body was hastily buried on 22 July despite the request of her mother, who lives in Iran, for the body to be repatriated to Canada. The request has since been repeated by Kazemi’s son and the Canadian authorities.
