The AP reported yesterday that “Iran’s Supreme Court ordered a new investigation Tuesday into the case of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist whose death in a notorious Tehran prison severely strained relations with Canada. Zahra Kazemi was arrested in July 2003 while taking photographs outside Evin prison during student-led protests against the ruling theocracy. She taken into custody, jailed at Evin and died a few days later”.
Coming on the same day that former nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian was acquitted of the most serious charges against him, it does make one wonder if something might be going on in Iran.
The AP report on the re-opening of the Kazemi investigation says that “Iranian authorities initially said she had suffered a stroke. A committee appointed by then-President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, found that Kazemi, 54, died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by a ‘physical attack. Prosecutors filed charges against a secret agent who interrogated Kazemi while she was in custody. The more conservative judiciary rejected the presidential finding, saying that Kazemi had died in an accidental fall when her blood pressure dropped during a hunger strike. A former Iranian army doctor has said he examined Kazemi and observed horrific injuries that could only have been caused by torture and rape. The doctor later received political asylum in Canada … Kazemi was not formally charged with a crime but Iran does not allow photographs of its prisons and is especially sensitive about Evin, where human rights groups have accused authorities of abusing political prisoners — a charge the government denies … Kazemi’s family has filed a civil claim in Quebec against the government of Iran seeking damages for her alleged torture and death, said John Terry, the family’s Canadian lawyer. Terry speculated that the Iranian justice system may be reacting to that civil lawsuit or to some Iranian lawyers’ criticism of the case’s handling. ‘I think they want to take some weight off this suit. They just want to give themselves a good image’, Hachemi said”. The AP report from Tehran is posted here.