Canada maintained ties despite torture revelation

Toronto Star ^ | 04/01/05 | BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH AND GRAHAM FRASER

[Pikamax]

Canada maintained ties despite torture revelation Kazemi suffered horrific injuries Canada dispatched new ambassador

BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH AND GRAHAM FRASER STAFF REPORTERS

Federal government officials were told last November that Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi had been brutally tortured and raped by Iranian security officials but that didn't prevent Ottawa from restoring diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Yesterday, Dr. Shahram Azam made public the horrific details he had told a Canadian foreign affairs official in Sweden last year — that Kazemi had suffered terrible injuries after being detained by Iranian authorities.

Azam, an emergency room doctor, says he was on duty June 26, 2003, when the Montreal woman arrived at Tehran's Baghiatollah hospital unconscious and suffering a catalogue of injuries, including a skull fracture, broken fingers, missing fingernails, bruises, evidence of flogging, and signs of a "brutal" rape.

"I could see this had been caused by torture ... it was the first time I'd seen someone who had been tortured. It was so shocking for me," said Azam, who has sought refugee status in Canada.

Kazemi, a 54-year-old Iranian-born Canadian, had been detained for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison during student-led protests.

Azam, who says he fled Iran in order to tell the tale of what happened to Kazemi, told the same story to a legal representative from foreign affairs in Sweden in November.

That same month, Canada dispatched ambassador Gordon VeneerVenner to reopen the embassy in Iran, four months after Ottawa pulled its ambassador to protest the decision to bar Canadian observers from attending the trial of a man accused of killing Kazemi.

Reached by telephone in Tehran yesterday, Venner said he couldn't comment on the case.

"In the morning (today), I am planning to talk to Ottawa ... to find out more about what has happened and we'll decide where to go from there," he said.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said Kazemi's brutal death is "simply unacceptable" and will result in as yet undetermined actions by Canada.

"It's virtually impossible not to just have your heart torn by what happened to her and by what her family, her son, must feel," Martin told reporters in Whistler, B.C., yesterday.

Foreign Minister Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said yesterday the latest revelations confirm Ottawa's belief that Kazemi — who died of her injuries about two weeks later, on July 10, 2003 — was slain by Iranian government officials.

"We know this was a murder, not an accident," Pettigrew said, speaking in Toronto.

He said it's important now to have a Canadian ambassador in the country.

But Conservative MP Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla) said it was "incomprehensible" that Canada would resume diplomatic relations with Iran after being told the disturbing details of Kazemi's death.

"To resume normal relations after having all this evidence, it absolutely defies imagination and exposes the total lack of any kind of principled approach," Day said in an interview.

NDP MP Alexa McDonough (Halifax) said the government's response has been "grotesquely inadequate" and accused the federal Liberals of sitting on the information it learned last November.

"I think the federal government has got some explaining to do."

An Iranian court said last summer that Kazemi died after she fainted during a hunger strike and hit her head.

But Azam said it was apparent from her extensive injuries that she had been severely tortured over several days. In dispassionate clinical terms, the former military doctor talked for more than 30 minutes as he described the litany of wounds, bruises and broken bones that he found during his examination.

"The patient was not in a good health situation," Azam said through an interpreter.

Marlys Edwardh, a lawyer for the family, said Azam's account was "important evidence" of Kazemi's "horrific torture."

"There can be no doubt now that the answers that have been received from Iranian officials have been nothing but lies," she said. "We think there are things to do and there are remedies that can be explored and things that can be done to, in part, address this horrific human rights violation," Edwardh said.

"There's something to be done. The question is, is there a will to carry this forward," she said.

Pettigrew said the government will meet with the family and look at all options.

"We have pushed on the Iranian authorities for a legitimate trial. We have raised the bigger problem of human rights to the United Nations general assembly and Iran is still not complying," he said.

Day, the Conservatives' foreign affairs critic, said Ottawa should impose sanctions if Iran doesn't respond to Canada's demands, an idea dismissed by Pettigrew.

Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, sat expressionless in the front row as Azam detailed the grim assessment of his mother's ordeal.

Later, he vowed to be relentless in going after the Iranian government to get justice.

"I'm continuing what my mother has started when she stood up to the Iranian regime. She stood up for her rights and I'm not going to stop," Hachemi said. He kept his emotions in check, saying he didn't want to be seen as a "poor victim."

"I could have let emotions flow during the doctor's testimony and dissolve in tears. However, I prefer to remain courageous and continue what I have begun, continue what my mother began when she stood up to the Islamist regime," he said.

Saeed Rahnema, an Iranian-Canadian author and professor at York University, said yesterday that Canada's insignificant efforts have made it easy for the Iranian government to ignore its demands.

"Canada can do more and should do more in pressing Iran to create an international tribunal in this case," Rahnema said.

WITH FILES FROM DANIEL GIRARD, HICHAM SAFIEDDINE