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To: nuconvert; Valin; dixiechick2000; RaceBannon; piasa; Persia; DoctorZIn; seamole; jriemer; ...
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/
7 posted on 07/22/2003 12:53:16 AM PDT by F14 Pilot (If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.)
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To: DoctorZIn; nuconvert; dixiechick2000; Valin; seamole
TORONTO STAR

We want justice, Iran told

MARY GORDON
STAFF REPORTER

OTTAWA—Those responsible for the "horrific" treatment in Iran of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi must be prosecuted, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham says.

The minister is pressing Iran over questions left unanswered in its report into her death.

"The treatment of Ms Kazemi, as detailed in this report, was a flagrant violation of her rights under international human rights law and a breach of obligations that Iran owes to the international community," Graham said yesterday.

"We now ask the Iranian government to take the next step and proceed with the full and swift prosecution of those responsible for Ms Kazemi's death in order to clearly demonstrate to Canada and the rest of the international community that its officials are not allowed to act with impunity, and to deter any future violations."

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Reynald Doiron said Graham is expected today to reiterate these statements to his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, and will demand the body of the photojournalist be brought back to Canada, as requested by her son, Stephan Hachemi of Montreal.

Federal officials said that if the conversation "does not yield immediate results in a rapid fashion," the next step would be for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to speak to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

Kazemi, 54, died of a fractured skull in a Tehran hospital after being in the custody of Iranian authorities. The dual citizen of Canada and Iran had been taking pictures outside Evin prison, a notoriously tough facility that has held many dissidents.

The fate of Kazemi's body is still unknown. Her mother, who lives in Iran, had originally said she wanted her daughter buried there. In a conference call on the weekend with consular and government officials, the family agreed the body should be returned to Canada.

A source close to the case said Hachemi was planning to fly to Iran last Friday to help his family reach a consensus. A Canadian passport was issued Thursday, but the Iranian embassy told Hachemi an Iranian visa could not be issued in time for his departure, and could come only from Tehran, the source said. The Iranian embassy then suggested he use his Iranian passport, but government officials advised Hachemi against it, the source said.

A report by five cabinet ministers said Kazemi was interrogated over three days. She spent the first 24 hours at a prosecutor's office, 26 hours at the intelligence unit of the Law Enforcement Forces, and 26 hours at the intelligence ministry.

Although Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi last week told reporters Kazemi was beaten to death, the report does not spell that out, saying she died from a hemorrhage due to a "blow by a hard object." It is also unclear about the time of the blow, indicating at one point it could have occurred up to 36 hours before she was admitted to hospital.

An unofficial translation of the report casts some new, eerie light on Kazemi's last days.

June 23, 5:40 p.m. Kazemi is arrested outside Evin prison for taking photos of family of those arrested during a riot in Tehran. "She was asked to submit her camera and her permit and then to pick them up later on the next day; however, she resisted and with her own responsibility asked to stay with her possessions in the prison. At this time, she `blackened' the films by taking them out of the camera."

June 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. After three stages of interrogation and now in the hands of the intelligence ministry, "the suspect ... claimed the questions have nothing to do with her occupation." At 4:30 p.m., Kazemi is examined by a prison doctor who says she is in good health. She complains of weakness and feels faint.

June 26, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The interrogator reports Kazemi "is not in a normal state and the nurse gave her some water with sugar," which she drinks. At 8:40 p.m., guards call for a nurse. Kazemi is given a shot, sleeps, then later complains of headaches. "At this moment she wipes her nose and notices ... fresh blood. Then she vomited some blood." About three hours later, she is taken to Azam Hospital by ambulance, accompanied by three people.

Declared brain dead on June 27, Kazemi died July 10 at 5:30 p.m. The report states she died from a "blow by a hard object."

The Khatami-appointed committee report calls for a judicial inquiry, informing the public of its results, and "adapting and using tolerable methods of interrogations of people arrested, especially `reporters.'"

The report also recommended further investigations to question those who had been in contact with Kazemi before her death.

The investigation is seen as a key test of Khatami's ability to shed light on the practices of Iran's shadowy security services and take on his hardline opponents in the judiciary.

The report showed "Iran is serious and transparent," foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.

"If we weren't transparent and serious Khatami wouldn't have ordered the creation (of the investigating committee)," he said.

Kazemi's son said the report shows the Iranian government is now finished with his mother's body, and the Canadian government must move to have it sent to Canada.

"Why are they not acting?" Hachemi said, adding that an international lawyer has advised him that the case should be "easy."

Hachemi has repeatedly said the Canadian government has not adequately pressured Iran in getting his mother's body back.

A source close to the case said Hachemi may not understand the workings of diplomacy necessary to fulfil his wish.

"It's not by banging fists on doors that we will achieve our goals, which happen — in this case — to be his goals."

Iran insists Kazemi was an Iranian citizen travelling on an Iranian passport and Canada has no right to interfere in her case.

Stockwell Day, the Canadian Alliance foreign affairs critic, said Canada should take a tougher approach against the Iranian government, and will today join two members of the Committee For Defence of Human Rights in Iran and Mohammad Javanmardi — a former political prisoner of Evin prison — to demand action.

Day said Mohammad Mousavi, Iran's ambassador to Canada, should stay in Iran until that country agrees to allow independent participation in its investigation, prosecutes the perpetrators and repatriates Kazemi's remains.

"The government's response lacks any reference to consequences for inaction or non-compliance," he said.

Those consequences include isolating Iran in the diplomatic community, which could include sanctions, he said. "Nothing happened in South Africa dealing with apartheid until democratic nations made it very clear that there would be consequences for this type of regime and its practices to continue."

Iran insisted yesterday the government inquiry was serious despite its failure to pinpoint how Kazemi's death happened or who was responsible.

The episode has strained relations between Iran and Canada and put the Islamic republic's treatment of the media under a spotlight.

Diplomats in Tehran said the report was unlikely to satisfy Canada.

"This isn't going to go down well with Ottawa," an Asian diplomat said. "The initial optimism when Khatami announced the investigation hasn't been lived up to."

Diplomats at the Canadian embassy in Tehran would only say they had not been officially told of the report's contents.

The report is also unlikely to satisfy Khatami's reformist allies in parliament, some of whom openly said on Sunday that Kazemi had been beaten by interrogators and pinned the blame for her death on the hardline judiciary.

The judiciary has been a thorn in the side of Khatami's reformist program since his first 1997 election win. In the last three years, it has closed down around 100 pro-reform publications and jailed dozens of reformist activists.

"It's a very political case. The reformists clearly intend to use it to put pressure on the judiciary, which has been the cause of so many of their problems," said the Asian diplomat.

"But I doubt they will succeed," he said, noting that the inquiry had recommended the judiciary appoint an independent judge to continue the probe into Kazemi's death.

The European Union branded Kazemi's violent death a crime and said Iran had an obligation under international law to prosecute those responsible.

www.thestar.com
8 posted on 07/22/2003 1:07:54 AM PDT by F14 Pilot (If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.)
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