AFSANEH NOROOZI’S DEATH VERDICT SUSPENDED, DARIUSH ZAHEDI MIGHT BE FREE SOON

TEHRAN, 2 Nov. (IPS) Human rights scored a new victory in the Islamic Republic of Iran after Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroodi, the Iraqi-born Head of Islamic Judiciary decided on Sunday to suspend the death sentence delivered by a local tribunal on Mrs. Afsaneh Noroozi.

A married woman with three children, the 32 years-old Noroozi was condemned two years ago by a local tribunal to capital punishment, accused of having assassinated six years ago the intelligence officer – whom the name is kept secret -- of the Persian Gulf resort Island of Kish she says tried to rape her at his house.

An Appeal court upheld the sentence in August and the final ruling was delivered to her last August, but it was upheld under growing pressures from Iranian and international organisations, as a group of lawmakers of both sexes had renewed their appeal to Iran's judiciary to spare a woman from execution.

Three women MMs (Members of the Majles), namely Mrs Jamileh Kadivar, Fatemeh Rake’i and Elaaheh Koola’i, all from the reformist fraction of the Parliament have written to Mr. Hashemi Shahroodi, praising him for his “wise and timely” decision taken “in consideration and response to both the national and international public opinion”.

"We are asking you to save the life of this woman who defended herself... and we urge you to order a new judicial process", the group had urged the arch’ conservative cleric, contesting an Islamic Judge who had doubted that the woman had extra-martial relations with the victim.

The legislators had observed that Norouzi's execution would make women afraid to defend themselves against sexual assaults, adding that application of the “unjust” sentence would humiliate Iranian women.

Norouzi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi had urged on the Judiciary to review the case, insisting that that Mrs. Norooz had acted of self-defence, “ as reckoned by all experts who had access to the documents” and also appealed to the victim's family to spare the mother of three children's life.

Under Iran's Islamic laws, relatives of a murder victim can accept "blood money" instead of the execution of the offender. The country's penal code has kept old Islamic definitions of this such as 100 camels or 200 silk dresses, but the authorities have also set a cash equivalent of 150 million Rials (8,000 US Dollars, on the market rate of one USD to 8335 Iranian Rials).

“Your attention to the public opinion, the expectation of Iranian women and consideration for justice is highly appreciated, but one would have expected your decision be taken earlier to save the nation from the heavy price it paid in international institutions”, the signatories said.

Several international human rights organisations and many personalities both inside and outside Iran, including the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International had criticised the verdict and urged Iranian officials to revoke it.

“If the case do not reaches the result one expects (declaring the innocence of Mrs. Noroozi and free her from prison), one shall fear for women who, in the future, faces up same kind of situation but keep silence of fear of injustice”, Mrs Kadivar said in the Majles.

For her part, Mrs. Rake’i, a member of the Majles’ Cultural Committee called for a full review of the case that, according to her, is “darkened by ambiguities”.

Noroozi’s family had called on Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and human rights activist awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace prize to take her defence.

As Mrs. Noroozi escaped the death row, an informed official source said Sunday that Mr. Dariush Zahedi, an Iranian-born American citizen jailed in Tehran three months ago on charges of espionage could be also free soon.

A professor of Political Science at the Berkeley University of California and political activist lobbying for rapprochement between Tehran and Washington, Mr. Zahedi came to Iran after 23 years to visit his family, but was detained on orders from Judge Sa’id Mortazavi, the notorious Prosecutor of Tehran and Islamic Revolution Courts and kept in Evin prison.

His detention was kept unpublicised on demands from the family, but it reached the press almost a month ago, after friends in the United States called on both American and Iranian authorities to let him free.

Lawmakers, including Mr. Mohsen Mirdamadi, the Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee warned Saturday that the regime was about to face another Zahra Kazemi tragedy, in reference to the Iranian Canadian photojournalist who was arrested last June by Mr. Mortazavi and murdered in prison while under interrogation.

Like in Mrs. Kazemi’s case, the Intelligence Ministry had dismissed espionage accusations brought up by the Prosecutor and Mr. Mirdamadi expressed “fears” that Mr. Zahedi might “as well fell to brain stroke”, a reference to Mortazavi’s first announcement that the journalist had died because of brain haemorrhage.

But it was learned latter that Mrs. Kazemi was hit on the skull by a “heavy object” while some interrogators, probably Mr. Mortazavi himself, were forcing her to admit to being a foreign nation (American) spy.

Iranian and international human rights organisations and the Bush Administration have strongly denounced Mr. Zahedi’s detention and have urged Tehran to free him “immediately”, observing that Mortazavi has not the competence to detain him.

According to the Prosecutor, who is a protégé of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Professor Zahedi had taken part in illegal meetings discussing the toppling of the Islamic Republic and distributing money to Iranian dissidents, almost the same accusations ha had brought against Mrs. Kazemi.

“Mr Zahedi might be free within 24 to 48 hours”, a source at the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed on Sunday.

Iranian political analysts told Iran Press Service that the suspension of Mrs. Noroozi’s death sentence and the news that Mr. Zahedi could be freed soon are all signs that under local and international pressures in the one hand and the impact of the prestigious Peace Prize awarded to Mrs. Ebadi by the Nobel Academy of Norway, the Iranian Justice, notorious for its disdain to human rights, “is coming more in line” with international norms. ENDS NOROOZI SENTENCE SUSPENDED 21103