Iran slammed on Iranian-Canadian photographer’s death

MONTREAL: The son of an Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in an Iranian jail a year ago Saturday, blasted a looming court proceeding on the case as a “farce.”

Zahra Kazemi, 54, was arrested in June 2003 for taking photographs outside Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. She died in hospital on July 10, 2003 from a brain haemorrhage caused by a blow to the head. The case triggered a diplomatic row between Ottawa and Tehran — and ties between the two countries are still in the deep freeze, a year later..

After a fierce struggle over the case between Iranian conservatives and reformers, court proceedings are due to resume in Iran on July 17. Kazemi’s family will be represented by Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi. “This trial is the same farce that it has always been,” Kazemi’s son, Stephan Hachemi told AFP on Thursday.

Hachemi also complained that the trial would fall well short of a complete inquiry into his mother’s death. Intelligence ministry agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, 42, has been charged with “participation in a semi-intentional murder”, in a case that has sparked a feud between the courts and the intelligence service.

International press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders marked the anniversary of Kazemi’s death by warning that impunity would triumph. afp

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