TEHRAN, 8 October 2003 — An Iranian intelligence official charged with the murder of a Canadian journalist yesterday denied any role in her death at the start of a rare public trial of a member of Iran’s security apparatus. The death in custody of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian resident of Iranian descent, soured relations between Ottawa and Tehran and highlighted rivalries between Iranian hardliners who control the judiciary and the reformist-controlled Intelligence Ministry.
The trial of Reza Ahmadi, a 42-year-old Intelligence Ministry employee who prosecutors said caused the fatal blow which led to Kazemi’s death, is seen as a key test of accountability for Iran’s judiciary and security forces. “I strongly reject these (charges),” Ahmadi, a stocky man with graying hair and thick brown-rimmed glasses, told a criminal court in Tehran.
But Iran’s reformist-led Intelligence Ministry hit back at the judiciary yesterday, accusing it of covering up evidence that an Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in detention was beaten while in its custody.
“A letter written by Zahra Kazemi the day after her arrest said she had been beaten and thrown to the ground during her first day in detention in Evin prison,” said a ministry statement carried by the ISNA student news agency. “It was in the report prepared by (intelligence) agents but unfortunately this important detail, which is just part of a body of evidence we have, was not taken into account by prosecutors,” it said.
The judiciary initially announced that Zahra, a 54-year-old Montreal-based photojournalist, died of a stroke two weeks after her arrest in June for taking photographs outside Tehran’s Evin prison, where many political dissidents are held.
But a government inquiry revealed she had received a heavy blow during the first 72 hours of questioning inside Evin which split her skull and caused a brain hemorrhage. Zahra was taken to hospital where she slipped into a coma and died on July 10.
The Intelligence Ministry, which is responsible for internal security and foreign information gathering, has strongly denied any of its officials caused Zahra’s death and suggested that the charges against Ahmadi were politically-motivated.
Canada recalled its ambassador after Iran ignored the wishes of Zahra’s son for her body to be returned to Canada for burial. She was buried at her birthplace in south Iran in July. Ambassador Philip Mackinnon returned to Iran last week and was at the court yesterday. Local and foreign media were also allowed into the courtroom — a rare display of transparency by Iran’s normally secretive judiciary.
Tehran Deputy Public Prosecutor Jafar Reshadati said in an hourlong presentation of the indictment against Ahmadi that numerous witnesses and reports showed Zahra was in good health until she was handed over to the Intelligence Ministry section in Evin on the second day of her arrest.
He said Ahmadi had admitted to being alone with Zahra at one point during her interrogation and that his statements revealed numerous inconsistencies.
In another development, Iran signaled yesterday it would continue enriching uranium needed for its bid to generate nuclear energy, defying an IAEA resolution demanding a halt to the process and US warnings that it cannot pick and choose how it complies with the UN watchdog. “We will not allow anyone to deprive us of our right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and in particular of our right to enrich fuel for our power stations,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said.
