Iran's Supreme Court Inquiry into Death of Photojournalist

IRAN'S SUPREME COURT REVIEWS CANADIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST'S DEATH IN DETENTION

A Supreme Court branch in Iran was reviewing on July 1 and 2 the case surrounding the death in custody in July 2003 of Zahra Kazemi -- an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist -- and a related Supreme Court verdict that Kazemi's relatives and lawyers have challenged, RFE/RL and Radio Farda reported.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Radio Farda on July 1 that lawyers argued that procedures followed in the case were not in line with Iranian law. Dadkhah said, for example, that the public prosecutor should not have declared the charge to be "manslaughter" or unintentional killing but rather murder, and that the judiciary should have investigated or interrogated individuals other than the Intelligence Ministry official who was charged and later acquitted.

Dadkhah said that individuals who were in contact with Kazemi during her prison interrogation should have appeared in court. Some domestic observers, international rights bodies, and Kazemi's son in Canada, Stephane Hashemi, suspect Tehran's chief prosecutor Said Mortazavi of involvement in Kazemi's apparently violent interrogation, Radio Farda reported. Then-Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said shortly after Kazemi's death that "according to a report by the [Iranian] health minister, she died of a brain hemorrhage resulting from beatings." VS
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/6-swa.asp