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Conservatives in Iran Looking to Deliver "Knock-Out Blow" Against Reformists

July 22, 2003
Eurasianet
Afshin Molavi

Iran’s leading pro-democracy student group held a press conference July 9 to announce the cancellation of plannedprotests to mark the fourth anniversary of a student uprising. Leaders of the group, known as Daftar-e-Tahkim-e-Vahdat (The Office to Foster Unity), expressed concern that in Iran’s "hostile environment," organizers could not guarantee the protesters’ safety. They also predicted a stepped-up campaign by Iran’s conservative camp to quash pro-democracy forces.

They had no idea their prediction would come true so soon.

Shortly after the news conference, armed plainclothes security men, most likely from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, grabbed three of the student leaders as they emerged outside, pushing them into waiting cars and speeding away. An astonished press corps witnessed the entire episode.

One student leader described the action as "a government-sanctioned kidnapping." Meanwhile, an Iranian journalist said: "I couldn’t believe my eyes. They put guns to their heads and shoved them in a car. It was like a scene from a Mafia movie."

Later that night, roughly 5,000 people gathered around Tehran University and nearby parks, despite a government ban on commemorating the July 9 protests and the Daftar cancellation of the organized student demonstration. Met by an intimidating force of riot police, plainclothes security officers on motorbikes and helicopters circling overhead, many decided to leave the area. Those who remained were attacked by vigilantes affiliated with conservative elements of Iran’s political leadership. Street clashes left scores injured and resulted in the detention of over 100 people, according to security sources.

The July 9 incidents help underscore the broad crackdown on freedom of expression being carried out by Iranian conservatives. Iran’s jails are swelling with dissidents, pro-democracy activists, journalists, and reformist politicians.

"We are witnessing a stepped-up campaign by the conservative camp to shut off all dissent," said a reformist parliamentarian who asked not to be named.

"They have made the calculation that they can get away with it," added the parliamentarian, who himself faces jail time on a number of charges brought up by Iran’s hard-line judiciary. "They have done this because they see the reformist camp as vulnerable due to its declining popularity."

Iranians, frustrated by the inability of reformists to deliver on promises of political liberalization in the face of conservative intransigence, have increasingly turned away from the once popular reformists. They are now seeking "third options" – neither reformist nor conservative – that have yet to form into viable movements. Indeed, the Daftar-e-Tahkim-e-Vahdat officially broke from the reform movement in an open letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. That letter sought UN assistance in the student movement’s struggle for democracy and freedom. In the letter, they described the reformists around President Mohammed Khatami as ineffective.

Conservative forces appear intent on crushing the reformists before the "third option" has a chance to coalesce, political analysts say. "The reformists are on their last legs and the conservatives seem to want to administer a knock-out blow," said Shirzad Bozorgmehr, editor of the independent Iran News English daily.

The conservatives’ confrontational methods, however, are threatening Iran’s international interests. The European Union, for example, announced July 21 that Iranian human rights abuses may force the EU to curtail economic contacts. As one Tehran-based European diplomat told EurasiaNet: "When the government rounds up students and puts them in jail and the news reaches our capitals, it makes it increasingly difficult for us to make the case that our dialogue with Iran is moderating its behavior." The EU diplomat was referring to the June street demonstrations in Tehran that resulted in the arrests of an estimated 4,000 people.

International scrutiny has intensified in the days following the death of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. A judicial investigation into the death is being led by Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s chief prosecutor. Mortazavi is an unabashed hard-liner who regularly calls reformist journalists "Zionist spies" and "corrupters of Islam."

Kazemi’s death has helped produce an outpouring of criticism of conservatives’ practices. For instance, the group Reporters Without Borders described Iran as "the biggest prison in the Middle East" for journalists. At the same time, the Canadian government has become more aggressive in its calls for bringing those responsible for Kazemi’s death to trial.

Daftar-e-Takhim-e-Vahdat members feel that increased international pressure on human rights issues is needed to blunt the conservative-led assault on basic freedoms. Their open letter to the UN Secretary General is seen as an attempt to implement such a strategy. The trouble is, analysts say, appeals for outside assistance are considered a taboo by many in Iranian political circles. Some observers believe the letter prompted the arrests of the three student group leaders. Still, as one member of Daftar-e-Takhim-e-Vahdat said: "Without an international spotlight, the conservatives would take even worse [action] than what they are doing right now."

Editor’s Note: Afshin Molavi, a Washington-based journalist specializing in Iranian and Caucasus affairs, recently returned from a three week reporting trip to Iran.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav072203.shtml

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Prosecutor Accused of Killing Journalist is Appointed to Investigate her Fate!

July 22, 2003
The Associated Press
Ali Akbar Dareini

TEHRAN, Iran -- The prosecutor accused by reformers of responsibility for the death in custody of a Canadian-Iranian journalist has been appointed to investigate what happened to her after she was detained while covering anti-government protests.

Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was named to head the investigation into the death of Zahra Kazemi, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday.

Mortazavi controls the prosecutors and police who interrogated Kazemi for 77 hours before she was taken to a hospital emergency room, where she died on July 10.

Mortazavi is also widely believed to have pushed for Kazemi's quick burial. Presidential investigators stepped in last week to prevent the burial, and the vice president said she had died of a beating, not a stroke as originally claimed.

Late Tuesday, the state-run news agency IRNA said it had received a letter from Kazemi's mother, who lives in Iran, saying she wanted her daughter buried in her hometown of Shiraz "in order to prevent any misuse of the tragic incident."

Kazemi's only child Stephan Hachemi, who lives in Montreal, wants her body sent to Canada for an independent autopsy and for burial. He said earlier his grandmother told him she was being pressured by Iraqi officials into agreeing that the body be buried in Iran.

The death has become one more bitter dispute between hard-liners and reformists struggling for power in Iran. Reformers have called for the ouster and prosecution of Mortazavi and other hard-liners they hold responsible for her death.

Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the hard-line head of Iran's judiciary, named Mortazavi to head the investigation. A day earlier, a committee appointed by reformist President Mohammad Khatami had called for an independent inquiry into the 54-year-old photojournalist's death.

"Public opinion expected that an independent judge will head the investigation, not a man who is seen as the main suspect in the case," reformist lawmaker Mohammad Kianoushrad told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Another reformist lawmaker, Reza Yousefian said: "Now, I don't expect that the whole truth will be revealed."

Kazemi died nearly three weeks after she was detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during last month's student-led protests.

After the interrogation, she spent 14 days in the intensive care unit of Baqiyatollah Azam Hospital before she died, the report said. The hospital is controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, a hard-line security force.

The presidential committee that investigated the death said Kazemi had complained of punishment from her guards and died of a fractured skull. The report, which appeared in full in an Iranian newspaper Monday, didn't say who was behind the death.

The presidential committee's report discredited an initial official account that Kazemi died of a stroke — an explanation many had seen as an attempt by Iran's hard-liners to absolve themselves and their security agents of responsibility.

On Sunday, prominent reformist lawmaker Mohsen Armin accused government security agents of beating Kazemi to death, echoing accusations from her family and friends. Armin said Mortazavi, the prosecutor, had ordered her detention and later forced a Culture Ministry official to announce Kazemi died of a stroke.

Before being appointed prosecutor this year, Mortazavi served as a judge and was behind the closure of over 90 pro-democracy publications, as well as the imprisonment of dozens of writers and political activists over the past three years.

Khatami asked judiciary head Shahroudi on Monday to launch a judicial inquiry and punish those responsible for Kazemi's death.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham on Monday called on the Iranian government act quickly to bring to justice those responsible for Kazemi's death.

http://pennlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/international-6/105889405184740.xml

Canadian 'to be Buried in Iran'

July 22, 2003
BBC News
BBCi

The body of a Canadian journalist who died in custody in Iran is to be buried there despite demands for it to be returned to Canada, Iranian officials have said.

Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian Canadian, died as a result of a severe blow to the head on 10 July after her arrest in Tehran on 23 June.

"Her body was taken to Shiraz (her birthplace) this evening and the funeral will be held at 0800 (0330 GMT) on Wednesday morning," an unnamed official told AFP news agency.

Ottawa previously expressed concern over Tehran's unwillingness to return the body to Canada, despite the wishes of both her Iranian and Canadian relatives.

Foreign Minister Bill Graham said that only the "full and swift prosecution" of those responsible for Ms Kazemi's death would "clearly demonstrate that [Iranian] officials are not allowed to act with impunity".

Arrest

Ms Kazemi, a 54-year-old photographer, was reportedly arrested for taking pictures of a Tehran prison.

It is thought she was never formally accused of a crime.

An Iranian presidential report released on Monday said she died in custody from a severe blow to the head which fractured her skull and caused a brain haemorrhage.

The report failed to say how and why the injury was inflicted, but called for an independent investigator to conduct an investigation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3088357.stm

Truth Bump...

Kazemi buried in Iran: reports

Globe and Mail Update

POSTED AT 2:42 AM EDT Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2003

Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was buried in Iran Wednesday morning, the Agence-France Presse is reporting.

AFP cites the Iranian state news agency, IRNA, as the source of the information. The burial took place in the southwestern city of Shiraz.

The news comes two weeks after Ms. Kazemi's death, which followed her arrest for taking pictures of family members of political prisoners in Tehran.

Iranian officials have since admitted that Ms. Kazemi was beaten and died from an injury to her skull.

Saeed Mortazavi was appointed to investigate Ms. Kazemi's fate. He is a conservative hard-liner who is also a suspect in her death.

A ministerial inquiry report ordered by President Mohammed Khatami says Mr. Mortazavi was present during one of her interrogation sessions.

Officials in Ottawa said late Tuesday that the federal government had hired an Iranian lawyer to try to get a court order to stop any burial in Iran. Failing that, Ottawa said it will seek an order to have the remains exhumed and returned to Canada.

Stephen Hachemi, Ms. Kazemi's son, called a burial in Iran "unacceptable." He wants his mother's body returned to Canada.

Canadian diplomats thought they had resolved earlier family differences about the place for burial. They said they had obtained the mother's agreement on Sunday for Ms. Kazemi's body to be returned to Canada.

But Mr. Hachemi told reporters yesterday that men went to his grandmother's house, put a gun to her head and forced her to sign a declaration authorizing the burial.

With reports from Jeff Sallot and Tu Thanh Ha

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030723.wkaze0723/BNStory/International/

The Iran-Syria axis

When it comes to terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 21 months make it abundantly clear that President Bush is not one to engage in empty rhetoric. So, when the president on Monday read the riot act to Iran and Syria, criticizing those governments for supporting terrorists bent on wrecking the Mideast peace process, one would think that his words deserved prominent Page one coverage.
"Today, Syria and Iran continue to harbor and assist terrorists. This behavior is completely unacceptable, and states that support terror will be held accountable," the president warned, adding that Tehran and Damascus should support the peace efforts of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. This newspaper placed the story about the president's remarks prominently across yesterday's front page, while the New York Times buried its coverage of the president's remarks in the sixth paragraph of a Page one story about North Korea's nuclear program. The Washington Post put it in a separate story all the way back on Page A12.
While the press continues to look backward — obsessing over the technical accuracy of 16 words in Mr. Bush's State of the Union speech about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons — it seems determined to avoid a much more significant story about the future direction of American foreign policy in the Middle East: What to do about terrorism-supporting states like Syria and Iran.
Right now, it would be difficult to think of two governments that are doing more to undermine American foreign policy interests than these two governments. Both regimes have supported terrorist groups that are staunchly opposed to Mr. Bush's road map for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and have been funneling arms and money to Islamic terrorist groups in an effort to sabotage the peace process. The two regimes are also working to undermine efforts to stabilize Iraq, where nearly 150,000 U.S. troops are stationed. Senior U.S. officials say Damascus has done nothing to prevent Iraqi, Lebanese and Syrian radicals from crossing into Iraq to carry out attacks on American troops in Iraq. (This includes, at a minimum, a few dozen Hezbollah fighters who were permitted to cross Syrian territory to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.) For its part, Tehran is also harboring al Qaeda operatives who fled Iraq once the U.S. military operation got underway in March, as well as operatives who fled Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. military campaign that began four weeks after the September 11 attacks. American officials also believe that al Qaeda operatives based in Iran were behind the May 12 attack on Riyadh compounds housing Westerners, in which 20 died.
Moreover, with all of this taking place, Iran continues to stonewall against International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear weapons facilities. Surely, all of these factors behind Mr. Bush's remarks are deserving of at least as much in-depth attention from the press as the debate over 16 words from the State of the Union.

http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20030722-093723-2718r.htm

Ms. Kazemi burried in Iran!

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030723.wkaze0723/BNStory/International/

Kim and Khamenei: nuke kids on the block

Apocalypse soon?

Jul 22nd 2003
From The Economist Global Agenda

Amid reports that North Korea may have a second plutonium plant, the IAEA says it presents the world’s gravest nuclear-weapons threat. But Iran is running it a close second. Can a dangerous showdown be averted in either case?

THIRTY-FIVE years ago this month, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed by 60 countries, with the aim of stopping the spread of nuclear weaponry. Though three countries in troubled parts of the world—India, Pakistan and Israel—refused to sign and went on to develop nuclear arms, the NPT has, overall, been a success. However, the prospects for preventing proliferation have now taken a severe knock, with North Korea’s withdrawal from the NPT in January, followed by its recent admission that it is making nuclear weapons; and growing suspicions that Iran is doing the same despite still being in the NPT. Over the weekend, American officials said they had evidence that North Korea was building a second plant to produce plutonium. On Monday July 21st, Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair, had talks in Beijing with President Hu Jintao about the growing Korean crisis, having visited South Korea’s president, Roh Moo-hyun, on Sunday. Afterwards, Mr Blair expressed optimism that three-way talks between North Korea, America and China would be held in the next few weeks.
On Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—the United Nations body that monitors countries’ compliance with the NPT—had said that he regarded North Korea as “the most immediate and most serious threat to the nuclear non-proliferation regime”. But the worries about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons programme have also grown in the past few days: on Friday, diplomats told Reuters news agency that UN inspectors had found enriched uranium—possibly the highly enriched type used to make bombs—in samples taken in Iran. On Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, presided over a ceremony to bring into service a new long-range missile, based on North Korean technology, which is capable of hitting Iran’s arch-foe, Israel, or indeed American bases in the Middle East.

Mr ElBaradei said he was encouraged by China’s recent diplomatic moves to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table. But he expressed concern at recent North Korean claims to have reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear-fuel rods, which would produce enough plutonium for about six nuclear warheads. American sensors have detected emissions of krypton-85 gas—which is emitted when nuclear fuel is reprocessed—from North Korea’s Yongbyon plant, though only in small quantities. This may mean the Koreans are exaggerating how much plutonium they have produced there. On Saturday, though, American officials confirmed an earlier report in the New York Times that sensors on North Korea’s borders had detected elevated levels of krypton-85 that did not seem to be coming from Yongbyon, suggesting the country might have built a second plant to produce plutonium.

Last October, America said North Korea had admitted having a secret nuclear programme. In December, North Korea expelled the IAEA inspectors that had been monitoring the Yongbyon plant, and in January it announced its withdrawal from the NPT. North Korea says it will only discuss its nuclear programme in one-to-one talks with America and will only make concessions if America agrees to a “non-aggression” pact. America has been insisting that any talks must be multilateral, bringing in China, Japan and South Korea. In April, China persuaded North Korea to participate in a three-way summit with itself and America but this appeared to make little headway. In June, North Korea formally admitted trying to make nuclear weapons, so it could reduce the cost of its conventional forces and divert resources to improve living standards in its ravaged economy.

The machinations of North Korea’s eccentric dictator, Kim Jong Il, are hard to fathom at the best of times. On the one hand he continues to talk and act tough: on Thursday, his troops fired on an observation post in the demilitarised zone that has separated the two Koreas since their war 50 years ago. And on Saturday, it emerged that North Korea had deployed more missiles (so far, non-nuclear ones) capable of reaching Japan, and had moved more artillery within range of the South Korean capital, Seoul. On the other hand such sabre-rattling has sometimes in the past been a prelude to a climbdown or compromise. On Monday, though North Korea reiterated its demands for bilateral negotiations with America, there was speculation in South Korea that a further round of talks involving China, to be held in early September, may be announced shortly.

Iran’s nuclear questions
Whereas North Korea is boasting that its nuclear programme is aimed at making weapons, Iran continues to insist that its programme is only for peaceful purposes: to generate electricity. Over the weekend, both the Iranian authorities and the IAEA stopped short of denying the reports from diplomats that enriched uranium, possibly weapons-grade, had been detected in Iran: a government spokesman said the reports were “questionable” while the IAEA said they were “pure speculation”. The IAEA has the right, under Iran’s current status in the NPT, to take samples at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant but not at some other facilities, such as the Kalaye Electric Company, near Tehran, where machinery used in uranium enrichment has been assembled. Iran has already turned down a request by the IAEA to take samples there.

Backed by many of the world’s main powers, Mr ElBaradei went to Tehran this month to press Iran to sign an additional protocol to the NPT which would oblige it to allow much more intrusive inspections. This protocol was devised in 1991 after the discovery of Iraq’s secret nuclear-weapons programme. Iran has said it is considering signing the protocol but talks continue. There are many reasons to question Iran’s protestations that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful: why is it producing uranium metal, which is useful for weapons but not for generating electricity? Why develop a heavy-water reactor (again, of possible use for bomb-making) when the nuclear power plants Iran is building with Russian help have light-water reactors? And above all, why would a country with some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves, which flares off (ie, wastes) vast volumes of gas that could fuel power plants, bother with the expense of nuclear power unless it had other motives? Iran’s unveiling of its new long-range missile, which could one day be nuclear-tipped, at a time when revelations about various secret nuclear plants are spilling out, is hardly reassuring.

There are some reasons to hope that deals can be reached with both Iran and North Korea to discourage them from deploying nuclear weapons on their own soil or offering them to other countries. The world’s main powers have started to put concerted pressure on both states: China, which is North Korea’s only important friend in the world, and an important supplier of food and fuel, has been sending its senior diplomats to Pyongyang, Washington and Seoul to try to get talks going; Russia has been urging both North Korea and Iran to avoid a conflict; and the European Union announced on Monday that it would review its ties with Iran in September, depending on whether it signed up for the IAEA’s tougher inspections.

But there is also plenty to be pessimistic about. Iran is in the middle of an internal conflict between liberal reformers and hardline Islamic conservatives, with the latter convinced that any concessions will only encourage America to demand more, perhaps including “regime change”. It is not clear at all what North Korea’s Mr Kim really wants, nor whether he would stick to any deal if one were reached. If either country did deploy nuclear weapons, it would destabilise the whole of the surrounding region: in Iran’s case, it might prompt Egypt and Saudi Arabia to try to go nuclear. So far, America has stopped short of threatening either North Korea or Iran with military intervention. But it has also stopped short of ruling this out entirely: on Monday, Mr Bush said America had “no intention” of attacking North Korea; but he also told Iran, along with Syria, that it would be “held accountable” for the support that Mr Bush accuses it of giving to terrorist groups.

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1937313

Mrs Kazemi's mother wants body buried in Iran

Tehran, July 22, IRNA -- Mother of Iranian photographer, Zahra Kazemi
who died of brain hemorrhage caused by fractured skull, Tuesday she
wants the body of her daughter buried in her hometown, Shiraz.
In a facsimile sent to IRNA, she said, "In order to prevent any
misuse of the tragic incident, I want my beloved daughter's body
buried in Shiraz."
Mrs Kazemi was arrested while taking photo from Evin prison
compound where families of the inmates were staging demonstration on
June 23.
President Khatami assigned four cabinet ministers to see whether
there is a matter of culpability in her sudden death.
The report released by the investigating committee on Sunday said
that Mrs Zahra Kazemi died of brain hemorrhage caused by a split in
her skull.
On Monday, Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi
ordered Tehran Province's Prosecution to hold judicial investigation
into the case.

http://www.irna.ir/en/tnews/030723221652.etn05.shtml

** Other reports also confirm this news.
I have another thing from BBC News....Sigh!

Wednesday, 23 July, 2003, 07:41 GMT 08:41 UK

Canadian buried in Iran

Zahra Kazemi was arrested while taking photos of Evin prison A Canadian journalist who died in custody in Iran has been buried there despite demands for her body to be returned to Canada, state media has reported

She was buried on Wednesday morning in the south-western city of Shiraz, the state news agency IRNA reported.
............>
*
More on BBC News here at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3088357.stm

She was buried on Wednesday morning in the south-western city of Shiraz

It was not possible for any western physician to investigate the cause of death, but according to existing information, it can be no doubt that it was murder caused by external force against the head.

I agree.
Mortezavi is responsible and must be stood trial one day soon.

Iranian-Canadian Photojournalist Buried in Iran
VOA News
23 Jul 2003, 08:26 UTC

Iran's official news agency says the Iranian-born Canadian photographer, who died while in Iranian custody, has been buried in her hometown of Shiraz.

The report said Zahra Kazemi was buried Wednesday, in the presence of a number of government officials. It did not give further details. The 54-year-old photographer died July 11, about three weeks after she was arrested for taking pictures outside a Tehran prison during last month's student-led protests. Later, a government report listed the cause of her death as a blow to the head.

Earlier this week, Iran's hard-line judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, ordered the Tehran prosecutor to take legal action against those responsible for her death. The order came a day after an Iranian reformist lawmaker called for the resignation of the same prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, accusing him of complicity in the death of Ms. Kazemi.

Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham has called for a quick legal action against those responsible for the apparent beating death of the photographer.

And, the Iranian Journalist Union has announced plans to stage a strike on August 8 to protest lack of press freedom in Iran. The Union is also planning to hold a memorial service for Ms. Kazemi.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=569D9631-B310-410C-ADFCA25A57BFEE27

AFP-
Iranian prosecutor Mortazavi, hero to conservatives, bane of reformists
Tue Jul 22,10:49 AM ET

TEHRAN (AFP) -
Tehran's chief prosecutor Said Mortazavi, who has been told to investigate the death of a foreign journalist in which reformist critics say he was involved, is a zealous conservative notorious for having closed dozens of newspapers and jailed pro-reform journalists.

Mortazavi, who had almost crippled the reformist media as judge in charge of the hardline judiciary's press court, was named prosecutor in the capital's public and revolutionary courts by Justice Minister Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi on April 29.

The move, following the revival of the office of prosecutor that had been in abeyance since 1993 -- with the function being combined with that of judge -- caused a furore among reformist victims of Mortazavi's "politically-motivated decisions".

Since May 2000 he had used his considerable powers to order the closure of most of 100 reformist newspapers shut down by the judiciary, and slapped heavy jail terms on such prominent journalists as Akbar Ganji and Emaddedin Baghi.

Over the past few weeks, amid street demonstrations which even targetted supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his office has ordered the arrest of a number of student leaders and more than half-a-dozen journalists.

Mortazavi was himself present for part of the interrogation of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi on June 23, a few hours after her arrest outside Tehran's Evin prison as she was taking pictures of protestors demanding the release of relatives locked up during the anti-regime protests.

According to the official report following an inquiry ordered by moderate President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) into Kazemi's death in custody, she complained to police that she had suffered "punitive measures" during the 21 hours she was with agents from Mortazavi's office.

The report prompted Khatami to ask Shahrudi to find those responsible for Kazemi's death, caused by a brain haemorrhage following an unexplained blow to the head.

Shahrudi passed on the instruction to Mortazavi, sparking a new outcry from reformist deputies who have been calling for an explanation of his role in the case, which has seriously damaged relations between Iran and Canada.

"One week before the announcement of Kazemi's death, Mortazavi had summoned the head of the culture ministry, Mohammad-Hossein Khoshvaght, to tell him that he had given a press permit to a spy," deputy Mohsen Armin said.

"The following week he summoned Khoshvaght again to demand he announce that she had suffered a stroke.

"I say that Mortazavi is at least guilty for attempting to cover up a part of the truth in this matter."

Mortazavi's conservative allies have meanwhile leapt to his defence.

"It is a great shame for the parliament to allow attacks against a soldier of the revolution, and defend the counter-revolution supported by (US President George W.) Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair," the conservative deputy Ali-Emami-Rad retorted.

"Mortazavi's crime is that he will not give in to political pressures. His crime is that he wants to block the spread of lies and infiltration in the press by counter-revolutionaries."

Right-wing newspapers suggested Tuesday that Kazemi might have smashed her own head against a wall or hard object to embarrass her interrogators.

Kayhan daily director Hossein Shariatmadari said that "contrary to the propaganda campaign carried out by extremists against the prosecutor", Kazemi did not receive the fatal blow in the custody of the prosecution, which "exonerated" Mortazavi.

Mortazavi, who is in his forties, was born in the central province of Yazd, the birthplace of Khatami. Bespectacled and with a neatly-trimmed beard, he is almost permanently attached to his mobile telephone.

Thanks for the pings

BTTT!

So, Kazemi has been buried in Iran, against her family's wishes, and Mortazavi has been charged with the investigation of her death, which he caused.

I'm gobsmacked!

Thanks for all of your posts.

...It was not possible for any western physician to investigate the cause of death...

It finally has dawned on me why the regime does not want her body to be examined. I have seen video examination of a young man who was murdered by the regime.

Besides the evidence of beating, there was evidence of burns, electric burns, acid burns, mutilation of the body. I would expect that they used these unbelievably horrible methods on her and will do anything to keep this evidence from the public.