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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2004Outrage over sham trial in IranThe case of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian woman journalist who was tortured and murdered in an Iranian government prison last year, is forcing international reporters to pay more attention to human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic. Kazemi was arrested outside the notorious Evin prison on June 23, 2003, as she was taking photos of the families of Iranian students who had been arrested during a week of protests against the regime. On July 10, 2003, the government announced that she had died in prison of a "stroke." Although her tortured and broken body was quickly buried without an internationally supervised autopsy, the authorities had to admit, under international pressure, that she had died from a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by blows to her head. It was only after much protest from her son in Canada and human rights groups in Iran and abroad that the Iranian government named a culprit and set a trial. In July, however, after a sham trial in which much of the evidence presented by attorneys led by Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi was dismissed, the prison agent arrested was declared innocent, and Kazemi’s death was declared "accidental." Shirin Ebadi has vowed to take this case to the World Court if an appeal for a retrial based on all the evidence is denied. What is at issue is not simply the involvement of one person but the Iranian judiciary and its chief judge, Saeed Mortazavi, who often presides in torture sessions. Ebadi tried to summon to trial top government officials including Mortazavi, who many believe ordered the torture of Kazemi leading to her death. --Sheila Sahar |
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