 New
York, July 19, 2004—The trial of an intelligence agent accused
of killing Canadian-Iranian freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi in July
2003 was suddenly brought to a close on Sunday, July 18, amid accusations
from Kazemi's legal team of misconduct.
An Iranian court abruptly ended the trial of Agent Mohamed Reza Aqdam
just one day after it began. Aqdam is accused of the "semi-intentional
murder" of Kazemi, who died while in official custody last year after
she was picked up photographing outside Tehran's Evin Prison.
Kazemi's lawyers, led by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, accused the court
of refusing to hear witness testimony and consider evidence implicating
another prison official of delivering the fatal blow that killed Kazemi.
Foreign journalists and diplomats were barred from attending Sunday's
hearing, and Canada withdrew its ambassador in protest of what it called
"a flagrant denial of justice."
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have attempted to restrict coverage of
the trial. A journalist quoted by The Associated Press (AP) said her newspaper
received a call from Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi, who ordered the
paper to delete information about the attempt by Kazemi's lawyers to implicate
the other prison official in the journalist's death. According to the
AP, most "Iranian newspapers have not published the accusations...apparently
fearing retribution."
On Saturday, two Iranian dailies, Vaghayeh Etefaghieh and Jomhuriat,
ceased publication. Agence-France Presse reported that one "newspaper
was suspended for ‘insulting officials' and another [was] shut down for
three weeks by its publisher after he was summoned by prosecutors." The
AP reported that at least one of the newspapers had published an article
about Kazemi that angered authorities. According to CPJ sources in Tehran,
the judiciary also closed the monthly Aftab last week. Mashallah
Shamsolvaezin, spokesman for the Iranian Committee for the Defense of
Freedom of the Press, the paper was shuttered in connection with reporting
about Kazemi's case.
"We are dismayed by the court's actions, which display utter contempt
for justice," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.
Background
Kazemi, a contributor to the Montreal-based magazine Recto Verso
and the London-based photo agency Camera Press, was detained on June 23,
2003, while taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin Prison. She was taken
to Baghiatollah Hospital after being held in government custody for nearly
two weeks and died on July 10.
For days following Kazemi's death, some Iranian officials maintained that
the journalist died of a stroke. But on July 16, 2003, Vice President
Mohammed Ali Abtahi announced that the cause of death was a "brain hemorrhage
resulting from beatings." A government inquiry released in late July 2003
concluded that Kazemi had died as a result of a skull fracture likely
caused by a blow to her head.
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