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Authorities' vagueness and infighting obstruct Kazemi murder probe

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has denounced the lack of openness in the official investigation into the death of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi. The organisation warned that the investigation is falling victim to the power struggle between the Iranian regime's reformists and hardliners.

On 25 August 2003, the criminal division of the Tehran Public Prosecutor's Office announced it had charged two employees of the pro-reformist Intelligence Ministry with "complicity in semi-intentional murder". However, on 26 August, the ministry denied the employees were involved, saying the circumstances of the killing were "very clear" and "the real truth would soon be revealed."

The two unnamed employees reportedly interrogated Kazemi between her arrest on 23 June and her hospitalisation on 27 June. They are reportedly in detention. A spokesman for the government, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, said the charges against the two "have nothing to do with reality."

On 26 August, the deputy intelligence minister told the "Article 90" Committee, which investigates complaints against the government, Parliament and the judiciary, that the ministry knew who had beaten the journalist since shortly after her arrest.

"The fuzziness of the inquiry shows the authorities are not keen on investigating the case," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. "We don't know exactly who has been arrested and the Prosecutor's Office's statement has been denied by the Intelligence Ministry, which limits itself to providing a few vague hints. The reformist-hardliner power struggle is blocking the investigation and makes it vital to have an independent and impartial inquiry with international experts involved. Canada must press for this," he added.

Kazemi, who lived in Canada, was arrested as she took pictures of prisoners' families in front of Tehran's Evin prison. She died on 11 July from injuries resulting from being beaten while in detention. After officials tried to cover up the cause of her death, Vice-President Ali Abtahi admitted on 16 July that she had been beaten.

Her body was hastily buried on 22 July in the southern town of Shiraz, despite her mother's objections. Kazemi's mother, who lives in Iran, had asked that the body be sent to Canada. On 30 July, she admitted to being pressured to allow her daughter's burial in Iran. Canada is insisting the body be handed over to Kazemi's Canadian son, Stéphan, as he has requested.

Some reformist members of parliament (MPs) have even accused the judiciary, which is controlled by hardliners, of being responsible for Kazemi's death. The fiercely anti-media Tehran prosecutor, Said Mortazavi, reportedly tried to cover up her death and pushed for a quick burial. In a letter that was published in the media on 24 July, Mohammad Hussein Khoshvagt, the Culture Ministry's foreign press chief, admitted that Mortazavi had forced him to say Kazemi had died of a brain haemorrhage. The judge reportedly accused him of issuing a press visa to Kazemi, whom he accused of being a spy.

Reformist MP Mohsen Armin confirmed these manoeuvres by Mortazavi and a fellow reformist MP, Elaheh Koulaie, said Kazemi had been killed as part of the "climate of censorship of the media and crackdown on all criticism."
Iran is the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East, with 19 presently detained.