Saturday, July 12, 2003
<b>Photojournalist Zahra Kazemi Dies in IRGC Hospital From Head Injury Due to Beating</b>
• Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, 54, died on Friday in an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) hospital, where she had been taken two days after her arrest on June 23. She had been in a coma ever since from fractured skull, as a result of heavy beating in prison. Her death was confirmed by the culture ministry's director of foreign press. Security agents arrested Kazemi while she was taking pictures of the Evin prison. Canadian foreign minister Bill Graham asked Canada's ambassador in Tehran to meet foreign minister Kharrazi in order to inquire about the circumstances of Kazemi's arrest and death. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>Four MPs Ask IRGC to Stay Out of Politics</b>
• The four reformist MPs who, after staging a 48-hour sit-in at the Majles in support of arrested students, began to call themselves representatives of the student movement, asked the armed forces to keep out of politics in an open letter to commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) brigadier-general Yahya Rahim-Safavi. The letter came as a response to a statement signed by 306 pro-conservative student organizations. The MPs argued that that 250 of the 306 so-called “student organizations” were in fact members of the Basij corps, a unit the IRGC. Opposition sources blamed the IRGC for the mass arrests of students and other pro-democracy protestors. (Masoud Malek)
• Commander Masoud Jazayeri, head of IRGC's public relations division, accused the MPs of ignorance of the Islamic regime's laws that, according to him, charge the IRGC with protecting the accomplishments of the Islamic Revolution. (Amir Armin)
<b>Iran-Saudi Arabia to Share Experience on Islamic Punishments</b>
• In an agreement signed in Riyadh on Friday at the conclusion of judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi's first official visit to Saudi Arabia, the two governments agreed to cooperate on security and extradition of crime suspects. According to the Saudi newspaper <i>al-Madina</i>, the Saudi judiciary will share with Iran its vast experience in handing down Islamic punishments, such as stoning to death and dismemberment. (Farideh Rahbar)
<b> Survivors and Victims' Kin Plan to Sue Top Islamic Officials in German Courts</b>
• Survivor of the 1992 assassination of three Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) leaders in Munich's Mikonos restaurant, <b>Parviz Dastmalchi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that relatives of opposition figures who fell victim to the Islamic regime's assassination squads in Europe, plan to form a committee to begin a new round of legal action against to Islamic officials in the European and international courts. He adds that the committee plans to press charges against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, former president Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former foreign minister Ali-Akbar Velayati. A German court convicted the three officials after a long investigation of the triple murder. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>UNHRC Asks Iran to End “Harassment” of Jailed Journalist Pourzand</b>
• The UN Human Rights Commission asked Iran, a party to the international human rights convention, to end the harassment of jailed veteran journalist Siamak Pourzand, 74, who has been convicted to 11 years in jail on charges of anti-regime activity based on his own “confessions.” In its report on prisons and arbitrary arrests, the UNHRC's delegation under French judge and prisoners' advocate Louis Joinet said the judiciary's case against veteran journalist Pourzand, appeared baseless. Paris-based human rights activist <b>Abdolkarim Lahiji</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that since the Islamic regime has not followed UNHRC's recommendation, the Human Rights Commission may ask the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution condemning Iran's violation of human rights. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
<b>Exiled Colleague's Concern for Arrested Veteran Journalist Esmail Jamshidi</b>
• Exiled novelist <b>Abbas Maroufi</b>, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that he is worried about his former colleague Esmail Jamshidi, 60, who was arrested in Iran yesterday by four security agents who ransacked his home and carted away his books and manuscripts. Maroufi, who fled Iran ten years ago after the culture ministry closed <i>Gardoon</i>, a cultural monthly he edited, says Jamshidi, with whom he worked closely at <i>Gardoon</i> for seven years, never involved himself in politics. He says Esmail Jamshidi's arrest cannot be related to the arrest last week of Jamishi's brother Iraj, since the two brothers had not spoken with each other for more than a year. The judiciary arrested Iraj Jamshidi last week after the daily <i>Asia</i>, which he managed and edited, ran a smiling photo of MKO co- leader Maryam Rajavi. (Alireza Taheri)
<b>Islamic Regime Hires German Privatization Advisors</b>
• To end the deadlock that has besieged the privatization of the state-owned enterprises, the new head of the privatization organization Ahmad Mir-Motahari signed an agreement with Germany's technical and economic cooperation organization. Of the 10,000 billion rials projected income from selling government-owned factories and companies to the public during the first three months of the current fiscal year, only 4 percent has materialized. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)
<b>Iran Expected to Acquire Long-Range Ballistic Missile Capable of Hitting Eastern US</b>
• Iran plans to continue developing its Shahab missiles, and will soon have a missile capable of hitting East Coast targets in the US, German daily <i>Frankfutter Rundschaw</i> speculates. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
<b>Khatami Threatens to Resign, Once Again</b>
• In a speech on Thursday in a Karaj stadium, President Khatami once again praised the virtues of democracy and said if people no longer want him, he would resign. His latest threat of resignation came at a time when formerly pro-Khatami organizations such as the association of Islamic student councils, as well as Iran's educated elite have given up on Khatami and are risking jail and beating to call for a referendum to end the clerical regime. (Alireza Taheri)
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امير آرمين (راديو فردا): زهرا كاظمي عكاس ايراني- كانادايي كه توسط ماموران امنيتي جمهوري اسلامي هنگام عكاسي در تهران مورد ضرب وشتم قرار گرفته بود و در حالت اغما در بيمارستان بقيه الله سپاه پاسداران نگهداري مي شد، در گذشت. مدير كل مطبوعات و رسانه هاي خارجي فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامي خبر درگذشت او را اعلام كرد. وي 54 ساله روز 23 ژوئن بازداشت شده بود. پزشكان گفته اند وقتي وي با جمجمه شكسته به بيمارستان منتقل شد از نظر مغزي مرده بود. مدير كل مطبوعات و رسانه هاي خارجي گفت خانم كاظمي بعنوان شهروند ايراني مجوز تهيه عكس و گزارش داشت. قرار است روز يكشنبه سفير كانادا در تهران در اين زمينه با مقامات جمهوري اسلامي گفتگو كند.
مريم احمدي (راديو فردا): زهرا کاظمي خبرنگارعکاسي که 54 سال داشت ومقراقامت او درمونترآل کانادا بود، روز 23 ژوئن گذشته به دنبال عکسبرداري از زندان اوين درتهران بازداشت شد. خبرگزاري رويتر درگزارشي نوشت زندان اوين، زندان بد نامي است که بسياري ازمخالفان سياسي ايران درآن زنداني هستند.
خانم کاظمي که درجريان بازداشت ازناحيه سربه شدت زخمي شده بود، دربيمارستان بستري گرديد ومتعاقبا اعلام شد براثرضربه مغزي درگذشته است. بستگان او مي گويند اومتهم به جاسوسي شد وتا سرحد کوما کتک خورد.
سخنگوي وزارت امورخارجه کانادا گفت دولت ايران رسما درگذشت خانم کاظمي را اعلام کرده است.
بيل گراهام وزيرامورخارجه کانادا ازسفيراين کشور درتهران خواسته است با ديدارفوري با کمال خرازي وزيرامورخارجه ايران، ببيند دقيقا چه اتفاقي براي خانم کاظمي افتاده است.
سخنگوي وزارت امورخارجه کانادا گفت بستگان خانم کاظمي ازدولت کانادا خواسته اند موجبات بازگرداندن جسد زهرا کاظمي را به کانادا فراهم آورد وما دراين مورد اقدام خواهيم کرد. وزيرامورخارجه کانادا همچنين دريک تماس تلفني با استفان هاشمي فرزند خانم کاظمي درمونترآل، مراتب همدردي وحمايت اوتاوا را به وي اعلام کرد.
رويتر درگزارش خود افزود اين حادثه يقينا به مناسبات نسبتا آرام کانادا وايران آسيب وارد مي آورد. سخنگوي وزارت امورخارجه کانادا دربرابراين سئوال که آيا اتاوا سفير خود در ايران را احضارخواهد کرد ويا اقدام به اخراج سفيرايران درکانادا مي کند، حاضر به اظهار نظر نشد. زهرا كاظمي، 54 ساله، خبرنگار عكاس كانادائي - ايراني كه توسط ماموران امنيتي جمهوري اسلامي هنگام عكاسي در تهران مورد ضرب وشتم قرار گرفته بود و در حالت اغما در بيمارستان بقيه الله سپاه پاسداران نگهداري مي شد، در گذشت. مدير كل مطبوعات و رسانه هاي خارجي فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامي خبر درگذشت او را اعلام كرد. وي 23 ژوئن بازداشت شده بود. پزشكان گفته اند وقتي وي با جمجمه شكسته به بيمارستان منتقل شد از نظر مغزي مرده بود. مدير كل مطبوعات و رسانه هاي خارجي گفت خانم كاظمي بعنوان شهروند ايراني مجوز تهيه عكس و گزارش داشت. قرار است روز يكشنبه سفير كانادا در تهران در اين زمينه با مقامات جمهوري اسلامي گفتگو كند.
