TEHRAN, July 24 (Agence France-Presse) - An Iranian court has cleared an intelligence agent accused of killing an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist while she was in custody, and the judiciary has moved to close the case, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday.
The report quoted an official in the prosecution office as saying that the agent, Muhammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, had been cleared because there was a "lack of proof."
IRNA said that in the absence of a guilty verdict, the Iranian government had been ordered to pay "blood money'' to the family of the photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, and appeared to signal that the courts would not pursue the case - a decision likely to further damage relations with Canada.
In Iran, blood money for a woman, half that for a man, amounts to $9,200.
Ms. Kazemi's family can appeal the verdict, although it was not clear if that would result in another investigation to find the killer.
Ms. Kazemi, a 54-year-old freelancer, died in July 2003 from a brain hemorrhage, the result of a blow to her skull inflicted while she was being interrogated. She had been arrested for taking photographs outside of Tehran's notorious Evin prison, which at the time was packed with protesters who took part in last summer's wave of anti-government demonstrations.
During his trial, the 42-year-old intelligence agent claimed that he was a scapegoat and a victim of Iran's complex internal rivalries. In two days of hearings last week, the judiciary was accused of covering up for one of its own officials.
The judiciary initially claimed that Ms. Kazemi died of a stroke, but a government report later revealed she had been struck by a blunt object.
From the time that she was arrested and eventually admitted to the hospital, Ms. Kazemi reportedly spent several days being shuttled between the custody of judicial prosecutors, the police and the intelligence ministry.
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And not just by Iranians. I'm ashamed to say the US uses violence in interrogation these days, resulting in death on occasion. And so does Israel. Don't deny it.
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Israel does not torture any more, we doen it in the past.
But the important thing is that we never torture innocent peoples.
Israel never torture journalist.
That woman was innocent, she did not accused for nothing.
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Is it ever right to torture a captured terrorist - for instance to obtain information about a future attack that could result in the deaths of American civilians? While the public, the press and politicians debate this issue in light of recent disclosures about how the United States has interrogated captured Iraqis, Afghans and al Qaeda operatives, a look elsewhere in the Middle East is instructive.
A few years ago Israel's High Court of Justice considered this question with respect to Palestinian terrorists and Israeli civilians. Its answer? Almost never.
In 1987, after Israel's General Security Service (GSS) came under fire for trying to cover up two incidents of abuse by its agents - the beating death of two Palestinians who had been arrested for hijacking a civilian bus and the extraction of a false confession of spying from an Israeli - a body called the Landau Commission was formed to investigate GSS interrogation methods. That commission concluded not only that the GSS employed "coercive" methods of interrogation but also that those methods were essential to Israel's security. Obtaining information from captured terrorist suspects to prevent further attacks was necessary to protect Israeli citizens, the commission said, and effective interrogation requires "moderate physical pressure" when nonviolent methods fail.
What the commission meant by "moderate physical pressure" was not publicly disclosed, but the approval expressly covered existing GSS practices, the nature of which were revealed over the next several years.
Those practices included "shabach" -binding the prisoner to a small chair that is tilted forward so he cannot sit stably, covering his head with a sack and playing loud music; "qambaz," or the "frog crouch," in which the suspect has to crouch on the tips of his toes for five-minute intervals; and more pedestrian methods, such as violent shakings, excessive tightening of handcuffs and sleep deprivation. Brain damage and permanent disability, along with death, were among the results of these methods.
Israel's high court rebuffed challenges to these practices until 1999, when it ruled on complaints brought by two Israeli public interest groups and six individuals who had faced GSS interrogations. In two of the individual cases, the court acknowledged the government's assertion that the interrogations, employing methods described above, resulted in information that thwarted planned terrorist acts. Nevertheless, the court declared all of the methods unlawful, given their proven harm to life or limb and their infringement of "human dignity."
"The State of Israel has been engaged in an unceasing struggle for both its very existence and security, from the day of its founding," began the Israeli high court's opinion, but "[a] democratic, freedom-loving society does not accept that investigators use any means for the purpose of uncovering the truth." The "destiny of democracy" is often to fight "with one hand tied behind its back," the opinion eloquently concluded, and "not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it."
One can oppose Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza and still applaud this stand by its high court - and learn from it. Surely the U.S. interest in combating terrorism is no greater than that of Israel. Nor is our commitment to democracy any less staunch or robust. True, the court left open the possibility that an interrogator who used force against a captured terrorist to get information to prevent an imminent attack - the hypothetical "ticking bomb" scenario - might be able to avoid criminal liability under the standard criminal-law "necessity" defense.
Israel's parliament, the Knesset, can also overrule the court with legislation authorizing force in interrogations. (It has not done so.) And regrettably, human rights groups allege that the banned interrogation methods have returned, particularly since the start of the second intifada in September 2000. But even with these caveats, the court's decision remains a powerful testament to the essential moral dimension of democracy and its core principle that security is subordinate to, indeed meaningless without, dignity.
We know that force in interrogations - whether employed by U.S. captors or by foreigners to whom we send detainees for its use - yields unreliable information. We also know it endangers Americans captured abroad. Let us decide too that it is anathema to our concept of democracy, as it is to Israel's.
But the important thing is that we never torture innocent peoples. Israel never torture journalist. That woman was innocent, she did not accused for nothing.
There have been numerous reports of the Israeli military intentionally firing upon journalists, both Arab and Western, when filming in the West Bank and Gaza.
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Once you start down that slippery slope, where does it end? Beating terrorists to obtain important information may seem expedient on occasion, but the ends doesn't justify the means. When you have to use those methods, the other side has won. Ethical nations can win without resorting to that. How can you project an image as an ethical power unless you abide by a higher standard than those you oppose? By behaving on a higher level, you've defeated them in the battle of minds. Thats more significant than you imagine.
YOu think the US would be having all the problems in Iraq that we do if we'd treated their people in a more civilized fashion-instead of degrading them?
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This begs the question ? Is there rule of Law in Iran ? I highly doubt it, Canada has alread ythreatend economic sanctions and I believe that will be followed by not allowing flights to Iran from Canada and not allowing Flights from Iran into Canada. It may even go as far as complete barring of Iranian citizens ...
The government was pissed and still is. If she was a regular citizen it wouldn't have matter all this much, but a jourlanist, and then closing the trial and al lthat BS. They know Canada can't really do them much harm so they don't worry. And they're right not to worry, a few Cruise missles might wake them up, but do we have those, NO, because the liberals go elected again.
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Canada's Future Maratime Helocopter
"deeds, not words"
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Very sad, I also hope they will find the guilty, and give them the same treatment.
On a side note, Dan, who the hell are to lecture another country on crimes when you, and your country are the biggest lying, stealing, murdering racist scum sucking leaches in the middle east?
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Diunei
There have been numerous reports of the Israeli military intentionally firing
upon journalists, both Arab and Western, when filming in the West Bank and Gaza.
So what , Israeli soldiers die more then once by friendly fire.
People (journalist or not) who walking in fire zone shoud now they put there
life in risk.
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So what , Israeli soldiers die more then once by friendly fire.
People (journalist or not) who walking in fire zone shoud now they put there
life in risk.
Intentionally targetting journalists is a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. I know Israel doesn't worry about international laws, but there it is.
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Tehran — Iran's judiciary said Wednesday Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in custody from a fall after her blood pressure dropped during a hunger strike, a sharp shift in position on a case that has strained relations between Tehran and Ottawa since her death a year ago.
The judiciary also denounced President Mohammed Khatami's reformist administration, which offered Monday to help identify the murderer of Zahra Kazemi, accusing it of providing fuel for a “spiteful” foreign media.
“The death of Mrs. Zahra Kazemi was an accident,” a judiciary statement said. A copy was obtained by Associated Press.
“With the acquittal of the sole defendant," the statement said, "only one option is left: The death of the late Kazemi was an accident due to fall in blood pressure resulting from a hunger strike and her fall on the ground while standing.”
A Tehran court cleared secret agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, the sole defendant in the case, on Saturday of killing Ms. Kazemi, who died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage in detention last July.
Ms. Kazemi, a Montreal freelance journalist born in Iran, died on July 10, 2003, while in detention for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests against the ruling theocracy.
Iranian authorities initially said Ms. Kazemi died of a stroke, but a presidential committee later found that she died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage. Mr. Ahmadi was charged with “semi-premeditated murder.” He denied it, and a team of lawyers representing the victim's mother contended that the real killer was Mohammed Bakhshi, a prison official who was being protected by the hardline judiciary.
Mr. Bakhshi was cleared of wrongdoing before Mr. Ahmadi's trial.
On Tuesday, Ms. Kazemi's son said Ottawa should kick Iran's ambassador out of the country.
Mr. Hachemi made the appeal just before he met Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who has yet to decide on concrete action to show Ottawa's displeasure with the Iranian government.
Mr. Hachemi, who has been harshly critical of Ottawa's handling of the affair, saw no reason to change his tone after his meeting with Mr. Pettigrew.
The minister refused to make any firm commitments to any of his proposals, he said.
“Until I hear him commit, he has failed me, he has failed my mother and he has failed human rights. ... The minister has not respected the memory of my mother.”
Canadian officials have said they are considering a range of diplomatic pressure tactics, but have not indicated that expelling ambassador Mohammed Ali Mousavi is among them.
They are, however, studying the possibility of taking the Kazemi case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague — another demand made by Mr. Hachemi.
Iran-Canada relations, soured by the slaying and subsequent quick burial of Ms. Kazemi in Iran against her son's wishes, further deteriorated after Iran rejected the idea of Canadian observers at the trial. The Canadian ambassador was barred from attending the last session of the otherwise open trial.
The Iranian judiciary's statement also accused Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh of making “irresponsible” comments when he directly challenged the judiciary Monday by saying Iran's Intelligence Ministry was prepared to identify the person behind Ms. Kazemi's murder if the judiciary allowed it to do so.
Mr. Ramezanzadeh, it said, was inciting public opinion, an accusation that could put the judiciary and government in a direct confrontation if formally pursued as a criminal charge. Judiciary spokesman Zahed Bashirirad said Wednesday there was no intention to indict Mr. Ramezanzadeh at the moment.
The judiciary statement said Mr. Ramezanzadeh had ignored the fact that the court gets the final say in any legal case.
Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, who represents the victim's mother, has rejected the court proceedings as flawed, and has vowed to “work until my last breath” to find the murderer.
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The only way I could imagine a skull fracture from a fall would be if Zahra Kazemi was being hung upside down. But then again, would she be more likely to have a broken neck in that case? And then, why would she be hanging upside down?
Bottom line: this was a poor attempt at fabricating an explaination.
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