| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iran: Journalist may have fallen
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A photojournalist who died of a brain hemorrhage may have "fallen or had an accident" while in Iranian custody, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Zahra Kazemi, a 54-year-old Iranian-born Canadian, died last Friday as a result of a blow to the head that caused a brain hemorrhage, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said Wednesday. Kharrazi gave more details in a phone call with Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham Wednesday, according to the CBC and Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA A committee set up by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is investigating the death. Kazemi was arrested June 23 and interrogated by Iranian authorities after taking photographs of a prison north of the capital Tehran. Initially, Iranian authorities said Kazemi complained of feeling unwell and was transferred on June 26 to Bahiatollah Hospital in Tehran, where she had a stroke and died two weeks later. Graham called his conversation with Kharrazi "an open and frank exchange" and said the investigation was transparent, the CBC reported. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley earlier warned that the issue could be a "setback" for his country's neutral relationship with Iran. IRNA said Graham had praised Khatami for taking measures to shed light on the cause of death and that he hoped the results of the inquiry would be announced as soon as possible. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is sensitive and committed to the fate of its nationals," Kharrazi said, according to IRNA. Kazemi's only son, Stephan Hachemi, who lives in Montreal, said Iran's government had acknowledged his mother had "been beaten to death." Hachemi has demanded Iran return Kazemi's body to Canada and disputed a report from IRNA that Kazemi's mother, who lives in Iran, has requested she be buried in Shiraz. "My grandmother wants exactly the same as I do, to have the body of Zahra Kazemi to be brought back to Canada," he said, adding that his grandmother was "under a lot of pressure" and was "forced" to make a "false declaration." "It has been clear between us and all the members of the family that (Kazemi) won't be buried in the land of the people that murdered her," Hachemi said. "She belongs with me, her only child." Days before her arrest, Kazemi was granted a work permit to cover reports on Tehran University and its students for the English "camera press," Iran's director of foreign news media, Mohammad Hussein Khoshvaqt, told IRNA. Her permit was granted as an Iranian national and, therefore, she was not treated like a foreign journalist, he said. Kazemi then cut her contact with the Department of the Foreign Press and Media until "we heard from relevant authorities that she, ignoring all regulations, had been taking photos from the Evin prison" and compiling a report on the families of those arrested during the recent unrest in Tehran, Khoshvaqt told IRNA. Iran said that more than 4,000 people were arrested during protests that began June 10 and lasted nine consecutive nights. The protests called for reforms and increased freedoms in the strict Islamic government. Many turned violent as government authorities and vigilantes attacked the protesters, who in some cases fought back. -- Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran contributed to this report
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
