Free Republic

It is now becoming clear that the man who caused the death of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-born, Canadian photojournalist is Mr. Sa’id Mortazavi, promoted recently by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic as the Prosecutor of Tehran and the Islamic Revolution tribunal. Ms. Kazemi, 54, was detained on 23 June in front of the Evin prison and died in hospital on 11 July of what Iranian officials admitted Wednesday as brain hemorrhage due to "blows" received on her head during interrogations at the Intelligence Ministry. At first, Iranian authorities said the photographer died from a brain...

BRUTALISED IRANIAN-CANADIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST DIED IN HOSPITAL ROME 12 July (IPS) The Association of Iranian Journalists Abroad (AIJA), in a fax to the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, protested vigorously to the death of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-born Canadian photo-journalist. Ms. Kazemi, 54, a free lance photographer covering for the Montreal-based "Recto Verso" and the London-based "Camera Press Agency", had been arrested on 23 June in Tehran while taking pictures near the notorious Evin prison and taken to an undisclosed prison, where, according to informed sources, she had been beaten to death, accused of espionage. Confirming the...

Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi

A Montreal photojournalist of Iranian origin, who was detained in Tehran last month on suspicion of being a spy, is brain-dead and not in a coma, her son Stephan Hachemi said yesterday. The family of Zahra Kazemi, 53, had said earlier she was beaten into a coma following her arrest while taking photographs of Evin prison in the northern part of Tehran on or about June 23. Hachemi had said Kazemi spoke with her mother in Iran to inform her of the arrest. "There was a misunderstanding," he said yesterday. "She did not talk with my grandmother after her arrest;...

Tehran Prosecution Office Rejects Indictment Against Agents Charged in Photographer's Death TEHRAN, Iran — Tehran's prosecution office on Monday rejected charges issued last month against two Intelligence Ministry agents over the killing of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, according to a statement released by the office. The statement said Tehran's deputy prosecutor general, Jafar Reshadati, returned the Aug. 25 indictments against the agents and called for "further investigations" into the charges. An independent judge charged the agents with complicity in photojournalist Zahra Kazemi's "semi-premeditated murder." She died July 10 after sustaining head injuries while in custody.

Tehran to brief Ottawa on Kazemi's death Photojournalist's murder causes rift among Iran's leaders   Michael Friscolanti, with files from Tom Blackwell National Post CREDIT: CanWest News Service   A self-portrait of the late Zahra Kazemi is part of an exhibit of her work at a Montreal gallery.   Iranian officials are expected to brief the Canadian government this morning about major developments in the case of Zahra Kazemi, including details about the two women ordered to stand trial for beating the Montreal photojournalist to death.The meeting, scheduled to occur at the Canadian embassy in Tehran, comes one day after Iran...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in police custody this month was murdered, Iran's vice president said Wednesday in the first official admission that Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death. Earlier government statements, including a report from a presidential committee, had acknowledged that the 54-year-old Kazemi died July 10 from head injuries, but suggested it could have been an accident. "The murder was caused by brain hemorrhage due to a blow inflicted on her," Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. The presidential committee, while shying from calling the death intentional, had previously...

Iran points to journalist 'murder' Iran's Vice-President, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, has said Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody in Iran, was probably murdered. The Iranian authorities have already said the journalist was beaten to death after being arrested for taking photographs outside a prison in Tehran, but these latest comments appear to go further. Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr Abtahi said: "The high possibility is that her murder was caused by a haemorrhage caused by a blow." The development comes as an Iranian newspaper reported the mother of Ms Kazemi as saying she had been...

Time for Canada to Disengage From Iran By Owen Rathbone on 07/28/03 Although the Iranian people have demonstrated by the thousands in past weeks for greater democracy and an end to clerical rule in their country, their plight has largely gone unreported in the Western media. The United States, in its resolve to bring terrorists to heel in the Middle East, has stood virtually alone in condemning the gross human rights violations of Iranians at the hands of the mullahs and their extremist supporters. Given the world’s silence, it is not surprising that the Muslim clerics have brutally clamped down...

Pulling Canada's ambassador from Iran, as Prime Minister Jean Chretien has done, should be but the kickoff in a spirited campaign to draw global attention to the fatal injury suffered by a Canadian photojournalist in gravely suspicious circumstances in a Tehran prison. Ottawa should also lobby for a United Nations probe of Zahra Kazemi's death, and press for the return of her remains. Nor should we be put off by Tehran's allegation yesterday that Vancouver police "criminally" killed an Iranian earlier this month. Keyvan Tabesh was shot brandishing a machete at police. Kazemi suffered a fatal blow to the head...

2003-07-23 3 women all died seeking freedom SALIM MANSUR, For the London Free Press In a world full of mayhem, the deaths of three Iranian women about the same time touched the hearts of millions everywhere in our global village. The 54-year old Zahra Kazemi, a Montrealer and a Canadian citizen of Iranian birth, died in a Tehran hospital. The 29-year old Bijani sisters, Laleh and Ladan, died on an operating table in a Singapore hospital, thousands of kilometres away from their home in Iran. A common thread binds these three women's lives in death with those around the world...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran accused Canadian police on Thursday of the "criminal" killing of an Iranian, ratcheting up a diplomatic dispute that began with the death in Iranian custody of a Canadian journalist this month. Iranian state media said Canadian police in Vancouver had attacked three young Iranians, killing one and injuring one of the others. It identified the dead man as Keyvan Tabesh and demanded those responsible be brought to justice. Iran and Canada are at odds over Zahra Kazemi, 54, a Canadian photojournalist of Iranian descent who died in Tehran after suffering a severe blow to the head...

TEHRAN: A Canadian journalist who died in custody in Tehran was buried in her birthplace in southern Iran on Wednesday against the wishes of her son and the Canadian government who wanted her body to be returned to Canada. Zahra Kazemi, 54, a photojournalist of Iranian descent living in Canada, died on July 10, more than two weeks after she was arrested for taking pictures outside a prison in Tehran. A government inquiry into her death said she had died of a brain haemorrhage caused by a severe blow to the head. But despite calls from the European Union and...

Will CNN Never Learn? July 20, 2003 Iran va Jahan Gary Metz Repeating their Iraqi mistakes in Iran. It appears CNN is once again in the business of burying news stories when their reports might embarrass their host country. If it were not for a student from Iran I might not have heard of this report. Fortunately the world of the Internet makes it increasingly difficult for stories to remain hidden from the public. The story I am referring to was published on gooya.com and while written in Persian it is available on the net. I contacted CNN for a...

MONTREAL (CP) - A Montreal-based photo journalist who died of a fractured skull in an Iranian hospital was beaten about the head with a shoe by a high-ranking Iranian official, the French newspaper Liberation reported Thursday. The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said Said Mortazavi, an official with the ruling Islamic government in Tehran, used his shoe to deliver the blows to Zahra Kazemi. He had apparently been questioning Kazemi, who had been arrested for taking pictures of an Iranian prison. Kazemi fell into a coma and was transported to a detention centre run by revolutionary guards before she was taken...

The story is straightforward: Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photographer of Iranian origin, went home to Iran, took pictures, got arrested, and was beaten to death. So why all the fuss? Iranians get beaten to death every day, and the victims of the regime have included not only talented female photographers, but many of Iran's most gifted writers and artists and thinkers. It is a mere accident that Ms. Kazemi had a Canadian passport, and they had not. Can such a document mean anything? I wish it did, but it doesn't. As long-time Canadian travellers know, if you get into trouble...

Until late last week, Bill Sampson was Canada's best-known human rights victim. Arrested in Saudi Arabia in late 2000 for his alleged role in two bombings, Mr. Sampson has spent the past two-and-a-half years in prison. Although the Saudis have not yet released any evidence linking him to the crimes, he was found guilty by secret trial last year and sentenced to death. Our government was not even informed of the verdict until several months later. That followed what appeared to be a forced confession on Saudi television in 2001, and allegations of torture. Now it appears another Canadian may...

Iran has acknowledged that a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist was beaten to death after her arrest outside a prison in Tehran. Vice President Ali Abtahi said Zahra Kazemi died "of a brain haemorrhage resulting from beatings". Ms Kazemi, 54, was detained on 23 June for taking pictures of Tehran's Evin prison. She was later pronounced dead after falling into a coma But officials in Tehran are still refusing to allow Canada to conduct its own investigation into the photographer's death. "We are knowledgeable enough to examine the body and find out the cause of her death, so we will not allow...

Zahra Kazemi, a Montreal-based photojournalist arrested in Iran and allegedly beaten by police interrogators, has been declared brain-dead. Doctors in Tehran told Canadian consular officials yesterday that Ms. Kazemi has all but succumbed to the brain hemorrhage she mysteriously suffered while in the custody of Iranian authorities. The news that his mother will never again wake up came as a harsh blow to Ms. Kazemi's son, who has barely slept since learning of her arrest on Monday. ''The words brain-dead, they talk for themselves,'' Stephan Hachemi said yesterday from his home in Montreal. ''She's in a terrible state.'' The news...