After death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi
Iran says she was buried in Iran
|
Reporters Without Borders
today demanded that the body of Canadian-Iranian photo-journalist
Zahra Kazemi be exhumed to find out exactly how she died after being
arrested last month for photographing Teheran's Evin prison. She died
in police hands on 11 July.
The Iranian ambassador to France, Seyed Sadegh Kharazi, told a delegation
from the press freedom organisation today that she had been buried
in Iran on either the 13 or 14 July but he could not say where. Yesterday
however, the Iranian embassy in Canada said a government commission
of enquiry set up by President Mohammad Khatami had ordered her not
to be buried until the investigation was complete. |
|
"The Iranian vice-president has announced that
she was beaten to death, so the authorities were lying when they said
she had had a stroke," said Reporters Without Border secretary-general
Robert Ménard. "We are appalled to learn from the ambassador
in France that she has been buried. How can the official enquiry and
legal officials proceed with the case if the body cannot be examined
? How can we trust the official autopsy when the authorities at first
tried to conceal the cause of her death ?"
Robert Ménard said that if the burial was confirmed, the body
must be exhumed and returned to Canada or Canadian investigators and
pathologists allowed to go to Iran. Such steps were essential in all
such cases where a person had been criminally beaten, he noted. Reporters
Without Borders has asked the embassy in France to grant visas for
its representatives to go to Iran and meet Kazemi's mother and the
families of other imprisoned journalists.
The ambassador in France told the press freedom organisation's delegation
that Iranian doctors had autopsied the body before burial and that
the results had been sent to President Khatami, to the judge in charge
of the case and to the government commission of enquiry, made up of
the ministers and deputy ministers of justice, the interior, intelligence
and Islamic guidance.
Kazemi is thought to have been arrested on 23 June after taking a
photo of Evin prison. Four days later she was presented to intelligence
ministry officials in a serious state. The authorities then told her
family she was in a coma at Teheran's Baghiatollah hospital as a result
of a stroke.
After her arrest, police searched her family's home and seized cameras
and large sums of money. Canadian officials managed to visit her but
were not allowed to see her medical file. Her hospital room was under
constant police guard.
Fifteen journalists are believed to be currently held by the Guardians
of the Revolution militia at the same place where Kazemi had been
interrogated and Reporters Without Borders and their families are
worried about their fate. Their relatives have written to President
Khatami detailed the physical and psychological torture the prisoners
have been subjected to. Their letter appeared today in the reformist
Iran press.
With 26 jailed, Iran is currently the world's second biggest prison
for journalists. |
| Five more journalistes arrested |
Reporters Without Borders expressed its "extreme
concern" over the arrest this weekend by Iranian authorities of five
more journalists.
"We are very worried", Reporters Without Borders secretary-general
Robert Ménard said, "not only because fourteen journalists
have been arrested by Iranian authorities within the last month - a sad
record in the history of this country - but also because the five new
arrests bring to twenty-two the number of journalists presently imprisoned
in Iran".
"Our concern is all the more poignant," he noted, "given
the extremely obscure circumstances of the hospitalisation and death of
Zahra Kazemi and how they have contributed to creating a climate of fear
for all journalistes working in Iran."
The requests for clarification made by Reporters Without Borders to Iranian
authorities have never received the slightest reply. "We welcome
with satisfaction the declarations of President Khatami who expressed
regret and concern after the death of Zahra Kazemi and ordered an investigation
into the circumstances of her death. But that is not enough to make us
forget the repression which Iranian journalists are faced with",
Robert Ménard added. "This is why we ask that the Iranian
regime authorize Reporters Without Borders to carry out an enquiry mission
into the situation of the freedom of the press in Iran and into the circumstances
of the death of Zahra Kazemi".
Also, Reporters Without Borders reiterated its call on the Iranian authorities
to grant the family's wish to repatriate the body to Canada, where she
lived.
On 11 and 12 July, Hossein Bastani, Vahid Ostad-Pour and Said Razavi Faghi,
all three editors of the reformist daily Yass-e No, as well as Shahram
Mohamadi-Nia, director of the weekly Vaght (The Moment), were summoned
before Tehran state prosecutor, Said Mortazavi, before being imprisoned.
Yass-e No had published, on 10 July, an article explaining that its editors
had prepared a complete edition on the demonstrations of 9 July but had
received orders from the Intelligence ministry not to print it.
Mohamadi-Nia, who was accused of publishing "impure photo and article",
was incarcerated as he was unable to pay a bail of 100 million rials (11,000
euros). As for Said Razavi Faghi, he was arrested at his home, whereas
the independent journalist Arash Salehi was arrested in the streets of
Tehran.
Ensafali Hedayat, a journalist for Salam, was freed on 12 July, after
spending 27 days in an individual cell at the central prison of Tabriz.
|
.gif){kind=spacer}
