SA’ID MORTAZAVI ACCUSED OF MASTERMINDING KAZEMI’S MURDER
TEHRAN, 28 Oct. (IPS) Mr. Sa’id Mortazavi, the symbol of Islamic justice who is a protégé of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic was accused of masterminded the assassination of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian Canadian photojournalist who died in a Tehran military hospital on 10 July, following fatal blows she had received on her skull.
In a detailed report on the conditions and circumstances that led to the
death of the photojournalist compiled by the Article 90 Committee of the Majles
and published on Tuesday, Judge Mortazavi, the Prosecutor for both Tehran and
the Islamic Revolution Courts is accused of gross violations of the laws, grave
irregularities, fabricated charges against the victim, coercion of officials and
delaying medical assistance etc..
Ms. Kazemi was detained on 21 June by agents dispatched by Mr. Mortazavi while taking pictures of families of political detainees protesting in front of the notorious Evin prison, charged of "espionage for foreign services".
She died five days latter in a hospital belonging to the Revolutionary Guards, after being interrogated by various agents from the office of the Prosecutor, including Mr. Mortazavi, the intelligence unit of the Law Enforcement Forces and the Intelligence Ministry.
At first, the authorities said she had suffered a brain stroke, but an investigating team formed on orders from the embattled President Mohammad Khatami concluded that the journalist had received "a heavy blow on her head".
According to the French newspaper Liberation", Mr. Mortazavi had hurt Ms. Mortazavi with his shoe, trying to force her to confess that she had been sent to Iran for espionage purposes.
According to the Committee’s report, Mr. Mortazavi, nicknamed as "The Butcher of the press" for having closed more than 100 publications during the time he served as head of the press court dared to answer questions from the Article 90 Committee five days after Ms. Kazemi was dead, saying she had suffered a brain stroke while interrogated by Intelligence Ministry’s agents.
The Intelligence Ministry immediately rejected the charges and promised to inform the public about "all the details" that led to Ms. Kazemi’s death, but so far it has not taken any action, due probably on pressures from the leader’s office.
The ministry also accused the judiciary of covering up evidence, including a letter written by Kazemi saying she was beaten and thrown to the ground during her first day in the custody of prosecutors.
Nevertheless, the Judiciary, which is controlled directly by Mr. Khameneh'i, brought to court an agent from the Ministry, accused of the fatal blow.
Tehran's Deputy Public Prosecutor presented numerous witness statements and reports in court earlier this month saying Kazemi was in good health until she was handed over to the Intelligence Ministry on the second day after her arrest.
Mr. Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, the Intelligence Ministry interrogator charged for the murder denied the accusations and was freed temporarily.
The prosecutor said Ahmadi was the only interrogator who spent long periods of time alone with Kazemi and that the agent refused to answer some questions about Kazemi's treatment and gave contradictory statements.
The charges against the Intelligence Ministry infuriated the government, including Hojjatoleslam Khatami, who, in a rare declaration, expressed his displeasure at the way the case was "mishandled" by the Judiciary.
The Majles report is expected to fuel further tensions between the ruling conservatives and the official reformers over Zahra Kazemi's death.
Reading out the report by the Article 90 Commission -- which investigates public complaints against parliament or the judiciary -- female reformist lawmaker Jamileh Kadivar said the arrest and detention of the photographer was illegal and alleged key details related to her death had been covered up.
The report also fingered Mr. Mortazavi for allegedly attempting to cover up the killing, notably by pressuring witnesses.
"Ms Kazemi's initial arrest was made without enough justification to implicate her as a spy", Kadivar told the open session of the House.
"Proof of this is that the intelligence ministry requested she be freed", she added, demanding a full inquiry into the judiciary's handling of the case.
Kadivar also cited a letter from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the judiciary demanding "the truth and not expediency".
Once it was known that Ms. Kazemi had died, Mr. Mortazavi coerced Mr. Mohammad Hoseyn Khoshvaqt, the General Director of the Guidance Ministry for foreign press to state that she had died on brain stroke", the report confirmed, quoting the official, who is a close relative of the leader.
Against all the elements indicating that Mr. Mortazavi or one of his agents killed the journalist, yet the report fails to name the culprit or to state how it all happened.
Lawmakers demanded to know why Mr. Mortazavi had originally attributed Kazemi's death to a stroke when she was later found to have died from a blow to the head, and why he charged her of espionage.
The report said Kazemi carried an official press card to work authorized by Culture Ministry officials.
The report, citing police and intelligence reports, said Kazemi was first severely beaten by judiciary officials in Evin prison, north of Tehran. It said 20 guards who witnessed and reported the beating were later forced to change their reports. The prison books have also been tampered with, the parliamentary report said.
"There are deliberate attempts by Tehran's prosecutor to justify Kazemi's death contrary to the facts, doctor initial paperwork...and change comments of initial witnesses", the report says, adding that there are no evidences that agents from the Intelligence Ministry killed Ms. Kazemi, as claimed by Mr. Mortazavi.
"All this indicates disorganization in the Tehran prosecutor's behavior and indicates the file of Kazemi's death has deviated from the right path", the report said.
"Her detention was illegal, and this is punishable according to the Islamic penal law. The judge who ordered her arrested should be prosecuted", she added.
The case, Kadivar said, was an indication of "confusion and disorganisation" within Iran's array of law enforcement, intelligence and judicial organs. She also said key documents related to Kazemi's detention and who came into contact with her at Tehran's Evin prison had been "tarnished".
Mortazavi was also accused of trying to pervert a probe into her death and also refusing to appear before the Article 90 commission.
According To Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroobi, the Majles Speaker, the report will be sent to the judiciary, meaning that Mr Mortazavi could be summoned for questioning in the trial of the intelligence agent.
But informed Iranian analysts said it was unlikely, as the Prosecutor is a protégé of Mr. Khameneh'i.
The death of Kazemi sparked a diplomatic dispute between Iran and Canada, as Tehran refused adamantly to bow to demands from the Canadian government and Ms. Kazemi’s son, Stephen Hashemi, for the transfer to Montreal of the journalist’s corpse for autopsy, burying her in her native town of Shiraz. ENDS JOURNALIST KILLED 281003