Replies

Iran's Parliament pegs Kazemi's death on 'butcher of the press'

Statement broadcast live: Prosecutor-general deliberately hid cause of death, reformists say

Graeme Hamilton and Norma Greenaway
National Post of Canada
29th of October, 03

Iran's Parliament yesterday blamed the death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi on Tehran's notorious prosecutor-general, Saeed Mortazavi, a man who earned the nickname "the butcher of the press" by closing more than 100 newspapers.

In a dramatic statement broadcast live on state-run Tehran radio, a parliamentary commission said Mr. Mortazavi was responsible for Ms. Kazemi's illegal detention and the subsequent attempt to cover up the fatal beating she received.

"The detention of Kazemi ... was not justified ... and against legal procedures," the Parliament said in its report on the killing, read in an open session against the objections of conservatives concerned about harming the country's image.

Bill Graham, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the parliamentary report as "a very positive development."

He said the Canadian government has always maintained there is "an internal political dimension" to Ms. Kazemi's death. "Her death gives the reformers in Iran an opportunity to step up to the conservatives who run the judiciary and say to them, "Look, you mishandled this,' " Mr. Graham said.

He said the report clearly indicates reformers have "no faith" in the prosecutor, and it confirms the need to maintain a strong Canadian diplomatic presence in the country.

The Parliament said Mr. Mortazavi, who initially claimed Ms. Kazemi had died of a stroke, deliberately hid the circumstances of her death.

Citing police and intelligence reports, the report said Ms. Kazemi was first severely beaten by judiciary officials in Evin prison, north of Tehran. Guards who witnessed the beating were forced to change their reports.

The Parliament accused Mr. Mortazavi of levelling false accusations that Ms. Kazemi was a spy and had no permission to work as a journalist. Its report said Ms. Kazemi carried an official media card authorized by Culture Ministry officials.

The accusations are evidence of a power struggle between the reformist-dominated Parliament and the conservative judiciary, which is aligned with the country's unelected but all-powerful religious leaders.

Stockwell Day, the Canadian Alliance foreign affairs critic, called on the Liberal government to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran.

"It was the hope of the guilty murderers to drag the investigation process out so long that the glare of international scrutiny would fade away. We cannot allow that to happen," Mr. Day said in a written statement. "Now more than ever, Canada must be relentless in publicly pressuring Mortazavi to resign from this case. He is a known state enforcer who may have played a first-hand role in the killing."

This is not the first time Mr. Mortazavi's name has surfaced in connection with Ms. Kazemi's death.

She was arrested on June 23 while taking pictures of demonstrators outside Evin prison. She fell into a coma while in custody and died on July 10.

In July, the French newspaper Libération, quoting unnamed sources, reported Mr. Mortazavi struck Ms. Kazemi on the head with a shoe during her interrogation.

Maurice Copithorne, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, who, until last year was a United Nations special representative on the human rights situation in Iran, said Mr. Mortazavi was an enemy of the free press.

"One name always popped up with regard to cases where there was an egregious denial of the rights of the newspapers concerned, and that name was Saeed Mortazavi," he said.

Mr. Mortazavi is a prominent figure in the regime, and singling him out for blame is much different than trying to blame some rogue element.

"It would cost someone quite a lot of face to have him put on trial," Mr. Copithorne said.

Karim Lahidji, a legal advisor to Ms. Kazemi's son and president of the Paris-based Iranian League for Human Rights, said the Parliament's report was an unprecedented challenge to Mr. Mortazavi. He noted the report effectively clears the intelligence agent currently on trial for the killing.

"The real guards were under the authority of Mortazavi, and they are still at work to find other Zahra Kazemis and torture them," Mr. Lahidji said.

Mr. Copithorne said the report is evidence that the reformers in Parliament are willing to assert themselves. "It's far from certain whether anyone will ever be charged and convicted, but the longer the issue is kept alive, the more political pressure is maintained on the governing elite," he said.

http://www.nationalpost.com/national/story.html?id=1B9970EA-7C9B-4858-84D5-ECAB38644715