Vagueness and infighting obstructs Kazemi murder probe

Reporters Without Borders today denounced the lack of openness in the official enquiry into the death of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi and warned that it was falling victim to the power struggle between the Iranian regime's reformists and hardliners. The criminal division of the Teheran public prosecutor's office announced on 25 August it had charged two employees of the pro-reformist intelligence ministry with "complicity in semi-intentional murder." But the next day, the ministry denied they were involved, saying the circumstances of the killing were very clear and that the real truth would soon be revealed. The two unnamed employees reportedly interrogated Kazemi between her arrest on 23 June and when she was hospitalised on 27 June and are said to be in detention. A spokesman for the reformist government, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, said charging them had nothing to do with reality. The deputy intelligence ministry told the so-called "Article 90" committee (that investigates complaints against the government, parliament and the judiciary) on 26 August that the ministry knew who had beaten the journalist soon after she was arrested. "The fuzziness of the enquiry shows the authorities are not keen on investigating the case," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "We don't know exactly who has been arrested and the prosecution office's statement has been denied by the intelligence ministry, which just makes a few vague hints. The reformist-hardliner power struggle is blocking the investigation and makes it vital to have an independent and impartial enquiry with international experts in it. Canada must press for this," he said. Kazemi, who lived in Canada, was arrested as she took pictures of prisoners' families in front of Teheran's Evin prison. She died on 11 July from injuries caused by her beating in detention. After officials tried to cover up the cause of her death, Vice-President Ali Abtahi admitted on 16 July she had been beaten. Her body was hastily buried on 22 July in the southern town of Shiraz, despite her mother, who lives in Iran, asking for the body to be sent to Canada. She admitted on 30 July being pressured to allow burial in Iran. Canada is insisting the body be handed over to Kazemi's Canadian son Stephan, as he has requested. Some reformist MPs have even accused the judiciary, controlled by the hardliners, of being responsible for her death. The fiercely anti-media Teheran prosecutor, Judge Said Mortazavi, reportedly tried to cover up her death and pushed for a quick burial. The culture ministry's foreign press chief, Mohammad Hussein Khoshvagt, admitted in a letter in the media on 24 July, 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, who he said was 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.