Canadian foreign minister and the victim’s Montreal-based son on Sunday expressed their dissatisfaction with the acquittal of an intelligence agent in the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. June 26, 2004 - "This trial has done nothing to answer the real questions about how Zahra Kazemi died or to bring the perpetrators of her murder to justice," said Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew.
A Tehran criminal court acquitted the agent and moved to close the case on Saturday. Kazemi, 54, died in July 2003 from a brain hemorrhage, the result of a blow to her skull during interrogation at the Evin prison, where she had been taken after being arrested for photographing prisoners’ relatives gathered outside.
”I call on Iran to fulfill its responsibilities to bring out the truth in this case,” Pettigrew added. "I understand that lawyers for the family are considering appealing the verdict. The government of Canada is reviewing further options,” he said.
The acquittal amounted to “protecting the guilty”, victim’s Montreal-based son Stephan Hashemi said “It is a whitewash.”
“A Canadian citizen was tortured to death during a 72-hour interrogation, and over a year later the Canadian government is still reviewing its options after being humiliated, lied to and toyed around (with) ... I'm furious,” he said in a statement.
Hashemi called for expulsion of the Islamic Republic ambassador from Ottawa, and Canada’s cooperation with the EU to press Iran on ending human rights violation. “All Iranian officials know the truth but would not say it. The Majles is in procession of my mothers notes, in which she had complained of tortures in her own handwriting,” he said in an interview with reporters, quoted by Reuters.
انتخاب سردبیر
پرخوانندهترینها
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