July 31, 2003
Iran confirms arrests in Kazemi beating
By ESTANISLAO OZIEWICZ
With a report from Kamyar Razavi
Wednesday, July 30, 2003 - Page A2
Tehran has officially confirmed that five Iranians have been arrested in connection with the beating death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.
Foreign Minister Bill Graham said that his Iranian counterpart told him by telephone yesterday that those detained include prison officials and security-intelligence agents.
"We will get [more] information as time develops as the legal procedures develop."
Mr. Graham also said that Kamal Kharrazi told him that an independent prosecutor has been named to lead the inquiry into Ms. Kazemi's death this month in police custody. Iran's chief judge assigned the investigation into Ms. Kazemi's death to Javad Esmaeili. Mr. Graham said he has been advised that the prosecutor has investigated previous cases of "disappearing journalists in Iran."
Mr. Graham made his comments after meeting with Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, and his lawyer, Marlys Edwardh, as well as Philip MacKinnon, Canada's ambassador to Iran.
Ms. Edwardh told reporters outside her Toronto office, where the meeting was held, that she was told the arrests include three men and two women.
"Whether those arrests result from a meaningful investigation, whether they will lead to a further investigation that would satisfy the standards that we might call a criminal investigation, who knows?"
Ms. Edwardh, who has taken the case pro bono, said that Mr. Graham and Mr. MacKinnon expressed relief that Saeed Mortazavi, a Tehran prosecutor who is alleged to have been present for at least part of Ms. Kazemi's interrogation, was removed as the official initially appointed to probe her death.
She said that Mr. Mortazavi's demission was the result of an "international outcry and an outcry in Tehran."
Ms. Edwardh said she is not ready to accept that the newly appointed investigator will conduct an effective, impartial inquiry.
"We are holding in judgment that process, its transparency, its results."
She said that her next steps in trying to get a just accounting of Ms. Kazemi's death and having her body returned to Canada include filing with the United Nations complaints regarding violations of free speech and regarding torture.
Standing by his lawyer's side, Mr. Hachemi seemed to be frustrated by some questions from the news media.
"You guys ask me a lot if I am satisfied. My mother has been tortured, raped maybe, beaten to death. And you ask me if I am satisfied? . . . I am satisfied with results."
Ms. Edwardh said that she is working on the case for free because it involves fundamental human-rights issues.
"It's about free speech and it's about women and women's rights to be professionals in the world. It's about your right to be listeners and watchers as journalists. You name it. It raises every important issue that one could have."
One of the five security agents who were detained is Jafar Neymati, according to Ali Reza Nourizadeh, an exiled Iranian journalist who has contacts in the regime. Another is Allah Bakshi. Both are officials in the intelligence unit of the conservative judiciary and are closely associated with Mr. Mortazavi.
The names of the other three agents are still unknown.
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