Ottawa and Montreal — The federal government may up the diplomatic ante with a direct appeal by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to Iranian authorities to release the body of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi and prosecute her killers.
Government officials say Mr. Chrétien may call President Mohammed Khatami directly to cut through the thicket of delay that has frustrated Ms. Kazemi's family and Iranian exile groups.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, who has made one telephone call to his Iranian counterpart to demand answers about the journalist's death in custody, plans to call Kamal Kharrazi again today.
If this does not produce results, Mr. Chrétien may wade in to impress upon Iranian authorities the seriousness of this case and the consequences for relations with Iran if it continues to consider Ms. Kazemi's violent death as strictly an internal matter, an official said yesterday.
In a communiqué released in Ottawa yesterday, Mr. Graham called for "swift action to bring to justice those responsible for the tragic death" of the 54-year-old journalist.
Ms. Kazemi, who held dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship, was arrested last month while photographing protesters outside a prison where political dissidents are held.
A special Iranian cabinet committee reported that she died on July 10 of a skull fracture suffered during a beating while in custody.
The report says Ms. Kazemi was taken to hospital only after up to 36 hours had elapsed from the time of the blow that fractured her skull. She was under interrogation when she began vomiting blood and her nose was bleeding, the report says. She was in custody from June 23 until June 27.
The report outlined that she first spent 21 hours in the office of the Tehran prosecutor, the next 26 hours with the police, another four hours again with the prosecutors and the final 26 hours being questioned by officials of the intelligence ministry.
That would indicate that she was struck either while the police were questioning her or in the office of the prosecutor.
The report hints at a battle of wills between a defiant Ms. Kazemi and her captors, beginning with the moment she was stopped and ordered to hand over her camera. Ms. Kazemi opted instead to pull out the roll of film to erase the shots she had taken, the report says.
Mr. Graham said he welcomed the "relative transparency of the inquiry" and its quick release. But he noted that many serious questions remain about who was responsible.
"The treatment of Ms. Kazemi, as detailed in this report, was a flagrant violation of her rights under international human-rights law and a breach of obligations that Iran owes to the international community," he said.
The minister said Iran must now take the next step and "proceed with the full and swift prosecution of those responsible . . . to clearly demonstrate to Canada and the rest of the international community that its officials are not allowed to act with impunity."
The communiqué said Canada is frustrated and dismayed with the continuing delays in returning Ms. Kazemi's body for burial.
Iran does not recognize dual citizenship. But reformers in the Iranian government have acknowledged that Ms. Kazemi's case is damaging the country's reputation in Western countries at the very time it is trying to improve relations with Europe and Canada.
"Our bilateral relations will be affected by the co-operation shown to the government of Canada by Iran over her case," said Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Iranian courts will determine the fate of the body, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran yesterday.
"Iran has proved it is following Kazemi's case seriously not because the Canadian government seeks to make the issue clear but for the reason that the reporter is an Iranian national," Mr. Asefi said.
The official IRNA press agency reported that Mr. Khatami, a reform figure who has been locked in a power struggle with unelected conservative mullahs, had forwarded the investigation report to Iran's top judge, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, and asked him to open a judicial inquiry into the case. In general, the judiciary has been a bastion of conservativism.
"Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi on Monday ordered an immediate legal action against those involved in the sudden death of Mrs. Zahra Kazemi while she was in custody," IRNA said.
A CBC radio report from Tehran said Mr. Shahroudi has appointed prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi to conduct the judicial investigation. Mr. Mortazavi is the official who ordered Ms. Kazemi's arrest in the first place, the radio report said. He has also been identified by reformist MP Mohsen Armin, who said Mr. Mortazavi was responsible for the journalist's death.
With reports from Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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