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Iranian Officials Raped Reporter, Then Killed Her
The New York Sun
By Adam Daifallah
August 22, 2003
WASHINGTON - Iranian officials raped Canadian-Iranian
journalist Zahra Kazemi before she died and put chemicals
in her body to speed up its decomposition, according to a
lawyer who recently visited Iran and an opposition group.
A Toronto-based lawyer, Hamid Mojtahedi, told Radio Farda,
the American-funded radio station beamed into Iran, that
Kazemi was raped by intelligence agents who worked with
Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi, a man referred to as the
"Butcher of the Press" by Iranian dissidents.
Mr. Mojtahedi, who traveled to Iran last month with a
delegation from the Canadian chapter of the group Lawyers
Without Borders, also told the radio station that a
forensic autopsy of Kazemi's body might be impossible since
Iranian authorities injected it with chemicals to speed its
decomposition.
The "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy
in Iran", a dissident organization based in Dallas, made
same claims in a report yesterday.
The Canadian government, Kazemi's mother and son have
demanded answers from Tehran about what really happened to
the journalist, and these latest claims throw Iran's
previous explanations into further question. Requests to
have her body exhumed and sent back to Canada have been
refused; Canada recalled its ambassador from Tehran in
protest.
Kazemi, an Iranian-born photojournalist who lived in
Montreal, died in a Tehran hospital July 14 after being
arrested and branded a spy by police after being caught
taking pictures outside of a prison in northern Iran on
June 23.
The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news
outlet, originally claimed she died of a "brain stroke";
days later, a presidentially appointed investigating
committee of Cabinet ministers said she was beaten and died
from a fractured skull, and then Iran's vice president,
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, said, "The murder was caused by brain
hemorrhage due to a blow inflicted on her."
France Bureau, a spokeswoman for the Canadian foreign
minister, Bill Graham, told The New York Sun that the
Canadian government is "looking into" the new claims.
Canada had unsuccessfully requested to be a part of the
investigation into Kazemi's death.
"We asked to participate or help in the investigation but
they're doing it on their own. We'll see what the report
says when it comes out," said Ms. Bureau, the spokeswoman.
Calls to Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, who lives in
Montreal, were not returned yesterday.
The handling of the Kazemi case has angered Iranian
democracy activists who say the Canadian government is
being too deferential to Iran.The Islamic Republic is
conducting an investigation of the journalist's death
without the involvement of Canadian or international
authorities.
"Letting Iran investigate this crime is like allowing a
murderer to be his own judge and jury," said Manouchehr
Ganji, a long-time opponent of the mullahs. "They've been
doing this all these years.The whole world has been
watching as a passive observer."
Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, an Iranian dissident whose father,
Iranian journalist Siamak Pourzand, is in jail in Tehran,
said that it is unfortunate it took someone with dual
nationality like Kazemi to die before the Western world
realized the way the "axis of evil" regime treats artists
and journalists.
"On top of their disregard for journalists, they do not
legitimately accept dual nationality. Someone with a dual
nationality has to be killed for the free world to notice,"
Ms. Zand-Bonazzi said.
Meanwhile, Agence France Presse reported that Iran's former
ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpour, was arrested in
northeast England in conjunction with the 1994 bombing of a
Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people.
Mr. Soleimanpour will appear before magistrates today at a
central London court, Scotland Yard said in a press
statement.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_3063.shtml
---------------------------------------------
Comments/Nazariat: smccdi@daneshjoo.org
Website: www.daneshjoo.org
Tel: +1 (972) 504-6864
Fax: +1 (972) 491-9866
"Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in
Iran" / "Komite e Hamahangui e Jonbesh e Daneshjoo-i Baraye
Democracy dar Iran"
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Ottawa Investigates Rape Charge in Photojournalist
Case
The National Post
By Tom Blackwell
August 25, 2003
The federal government and Lawyers without Borders are
looking into allegations that Iranian interrogators raped a
Montreal photo-journalist before killing her, then pumped
chemicals into her body to speed decomposition.
Both the Department of Foreign Affairs and the human rights
group say they have asked Iranian authorities investigating
Zahra Kazemi's death to try to verify the latest claims.
Hamid Mojtahedi, a Toronto lawyer who is in Iran on behalf
of the rights group, stressed the reports are completely
uncorroborated at this point.
"Some sources advised us that this might have been the case
and we are trying to substantiate it," he told the National
Post yesterday in an interview from Tehran.
"We had a meeting with the prosecutor-general of Tehran,
who has basically seized the case for some time.... He
promised to co-operate with us and advise us if any such
thing did happen."
A Texas-based Iranian opposition group went further
yesterday, claiming it has received convincing reports from
sources in the country's intelligence community that the
photographer was raped and chemicals used to more quickly
erase the evidence.
But Mr. Mojtahedi said Lawyers Without Borders is anxious
to maintain its neutrality on the issue. To overplay the
reports now "may very well muddy the water, it may very
well hinder any investigation the authorities may want to
carry out," he said.
"Based on what we have been told at this stage, we should
really consider them to be rumours."
Mr. Mojtahedi is in Iran partly to try to get official
recognition for his organization to observe future trials,
including those of anyone charged in Ms. Kazemi's death.
France Bureau, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs
Department, said Canadian authorities are aware of the rape
accusations and have also asked local officials to
investigate.
"We're looking at it, but we haven't received any
corroborating information from Iranian authorities," she
said.
The embassy in Tehran has asked for an official briefing on
the status of the whole Kazemi investigation, Ms. Bureau
added.
Ms. Kazemi, 54, an Iranian ex-patriot based in Montreal,
died on July 10, three weeks after authorities arrested
her. She had been photographing student-led protests
outside a jail in the Islamic republic.
Iranian officials initially denied there had been any
wrongdoing, but later confirmed she died as a result of
being struck on the head by her captors. A judicial inquiry
led to the arrest of five Intelligence Ministry agents, two
of whom were released on bail this month.
Canada pulled its ambassador from Tehran after Ms. Kazemi
was buried in her birthplace, the southern Iranian city of
Shiraz, against the wishes of Canadian authorities and her
son, who lives in Montreal.
Aryo Pirouznia of the Dallas-based Student Movement
Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran said
intelligence sources told his group Ms. Kazemi had been
raped after she slapped one of her interrogators, who had
hit her.
Mr. Pirouznia's group is dedicated to replacing the current
Islamic regime of Iran with a secular, democratic
government.
He said the officers had already forced Ms. Kazemi to say
she had been part of the counter-revolutionary movement in
Iran, and were trying to get her to confess to working for
U.S. intelligence.
Officials later decided to inject her body with chemicals
that would decompose the remains faster, making it more
difficult to perform a post-mortem, he charged.
The committee had actually heard the report more than two
weeks ago, but did not go public to avoid being accused of
fabricating the story to embarrass Iranian hardliners, he
said.
The group only posted a report on its Web site after Mr.
Mojtahedi was quoted about the case on an Iranian-language
radio station.
"It is so big, it is so horrible that we didn't want to put
it up," said Mr. Pirouznia.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_3062.shtml
---------------------------------------------
Comments/Nazariat: smccdi@daneshjoo.org
Website: www.daneshjoo.org
Tel: +1 (972) 504-6864
Fax: +1 (972) 491-9866
"Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in
Iran" / "Komite e Hamahangui e Jonbesh e Daneshjoo-i Baraye
Democracy dar Iran"
|
|
Ottawa Investigates Rape Charge in Photojournalist
Case
The National Post
By Tom Blackwell
August 25, 2003
The federal government and Lawyers without Borders are
looking into allegations that Iranian interrogators raped a
Montreal photo-journalist before killing her, then pumped
chemicals into her body to speed decomposition.
Both the Department of Foreign Affairs and the human rights
group say they have asked Iranian authorities investigating
Zahra Kazemi's death to try to verify the latest claims.
Hamid Mojtahedi, a Toronto lawyer who is in Iran on behalf
of the rights group, stressed the reports are completely
uncorroborated at this point.
"Some sources advised us that this might have been the case
and we are trying to substantiate it," he told the National
Post yesterday in an interview from Tehran.
"We had a meeting with the prosecutor-general of Tehran,
who has basically seized the case for some time.... He
promised to co-operate with us and advise us if any such
thing did happen."
A Texas-based Iranian opposition group went further
yesterday, claiming it has received convincing reports from
sources in the country's intelligence community that the
photographer was raped and chemicals used to more quickly
erase the evidence.
But Mr. Mojtahedi said Lawyers Without Borders is anxious
to maintain its neutrality on the issue. To overplay the
reports now "may very well muddy the water, it may very
well hinder any investigation the authorities may want to
carry out," he said.
"Based on what we have been told at this stage, we should
really consider them to be rumours."
Mr. Mojtahedi is in Iran partly to try to get official
recognition for his organization to observe future trials,
including those of anyone charged in Ms. Kazemi's death.
France Bureau, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs
Department, said Canadian authorities are aware of the rape
accusations and have also asked local officials to
investigate.
"We're looking at it, but we haven't received any
corroborating information from Iranian authorities," she
said.
The embassy in Tehran has asked for an official briefing on
the status of the whole Kazemi investigation, Ms. Bureau
added.
Ms. Kazemi, 54, an Iranian ex-patriot based in Montreal,
died on July 10, three weeks after authorities arrested
her. She had been photographing student-led protests
outside a jail in the Islamic republic.
Iranian officials initially denied there had been any
wrongdoing, but later confirmed she died as a result of
being struck on the head by her captors. A judicial inquiry
led to the arrest of five Intelligence Ministry agents, two
of whom were released on bail this month.
Canada pulled its ambassador from Tehran after Ms. Kazemi
was buried in her birthplace, the southern Iranian city of
Shiraz, against the wishes of Canadian authorities and her
son, who lives in Montreal.
Aryo Pirouznia of the Dallas-based Student Movement
Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran said
intelligence sources told his group Ms. Kazemi had been
raped after she slapped one of her interrogators, who had
hit her.
Mr. Pirouznia's group is dedicated to replacing the current
Islamic regime of Iran with a secular, democratic
government.
He said the officers had already forced Ms. Kazemi to say
she had been part of the counter-revolutionary movement in
Iran, and were trying to get her to confess to working for
U.S. intelligence.
Officials later decided to inject her body with chemicals
that would decompose the remains faster, making it more
difficult to perform a post-mortem, he charged.
The committee had actually heard the report more than two
weeks ago, but did not go public to avoid being accused of
fabricating the story to embarrass Iranian hardliners, he
said.
The group only posted a report on its Web site after Mr.
Mojtahedi was quoted about the case on an Iranian-language
radio station.
"It is so big, it is so horrible that we didn't want to put
it up," said Mr. Pirouznia.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_3062.shtml
---------------------------------------------
Comments/Nazariat: smccdi@daneshjoo.org
Website: www.daneshjoo.org
Tel: +1 (972) 504-6864
Fax: +1 (972) 491-9866
"Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in
Iran" / "Komite e Hamahangui e Jonbesh e Daneshjoo-i Baraye
Democracy dar Iran"
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