Zahra Kazemi Murder Timeline

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Iran based its refusal to permit foreign observation of the trial on an intrinsic rejection of Kazemi's dual citizenship. By contending that Ms. Kazemi was solely an Iranian citizen, it maintained that the affair is strictly domestic.
In the charge of "semi-premeditated murder", the assault was deliberate, but the death was accidentally inflicted; what North Americans would probably call second degree murder.
The timeline on this affair as detailed by Reporters Without Borders and CBC News Online is as follows:

2003

23 June: Kazemi was detained outside Evin prison, north of Tehran as she was taking photos of the relatives of detainees. She was interrogated by police, prosecutors and intelligence officials for 77 hours.
26 or 27 June: She was transfered to Baghiatollah hospital with a skull fracture. The time is given as "just before midnight" on 27 June, but it is not certain if that was before 0000 or before 2400. Further facts suggest the transfer was just before 2400 hours on 26 June. (Twenty-four hundred [2400] hours is the end of the day, Zero [0000] hundred hours is the beginning.)
27 June: Physicians at the hospital determined that Kazemi was "brain dead". Her family was told that she was in a coma in hospital.
10 July: Doctors waited until this day to officially announce her death; the day after the anniversary of the July 1999 student demonstrations.
12 July: Ambassador Philip MacKinnon was ordered by Ottawa to investigate Kazemi's death.
13 July: Iran's official news agency reports that Kazemi "suffered a stroke when she was subject to interrogation and died in hospital." A commission of enquiry to determine the circumstances of her death was set up at President Khatami's request. In a report released a week later, the commission said that between the time of her arrest and her transfer to hospital, Kazemi had been interrogated in turn by:
- the staff of Tehran state prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi,
- the police,
- the prosecutor's staff again,
- and finally by officials with the intelligence ministry.
The report said the skull fracture that caused her death occurred no more than 36 hours before her hospitalisation. According to the chronology of events established by the investigation, the fatal injury could have occurred while she was in the custody of either the prosecutor's staff or the intelligence ministry.
14 July: Deputy Prime Minister John Manley called on Iran to return Zahra Kazemi's body to Canada.
16 July: Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Iran's vice-president, admits that Kazemi died as a result of being beaten. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien commented, "If crimes have been committed we're pushing the Iranian government to punish those who committed the crime."
20 July: Iran's official news agency reported that Ms. Kazemi died from a fractured skull caused by "a physical attack." The same day, Stephan Hachemi - her son - told reporters the Canadian government was not pressing Iran hard enough to get her body home.
21 July: Bill Graham, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, called for swifter action in the investigation into the death; he said Ms. Kazemi's treatment, "was a flagrant violation of her rights under international human rights law and a breach of obligations that Iran owes to the international community."
22 July: Kazemi's body was hastily buried in the southern town of Chiraz; contrary to the wishes of her son, Stephan Hachemi, a permanent resident in Canada. Ms. Kazemi's mother, who is still living in Iran, publicly acknowledged that she had been pressured into authorising the burial.
23 July: Canada recalled Ambassador Philip MacKinnon. Bill Graham called the move, "a strong indication in diplomatic terms of the complete dissatisfaction of one government to another government."
In Iran, the military prosecutor's office assigned Kazemi's case to Saeed Mortazavi, but Mortazavi subsequently recused himself because of the allegations that he was directly involved in her death. The commission of enquiry had established that he personally took part in an interrogation session within hours of her arrest. The case was transferred to Judge Esmaili at the end of July 2003.
25 July: Diplomatic relations between Canada and Iran deteriorated as the ambassador to Iran returns to Ottawa and the foreign affairs minister rejected claims of Canadian injustice. Iran accused a B.C. police officer of murdering one of its nationals. This stemmed from a Port Moody police officer shooting and killing 18-year-old Keyvan Tabesh on 21 July. The police alleged that he threatened them with a machete. Iranian officials call the shooting "incomprehensible" and demand those responsible be brought to justice.
[A clear and present attempt to obfuscate and misdirect. At least we have mechanisms in place to avoid arbitrary arrest, and if the shooting was not justified, justice is much more likely to be done. Moreover, Tabesh was being apprehended, not tortured while in custody. --MN]
27 July: Isabelle Savard, Foreign Affairs spokesperson, announced that the arrest of five people in the beating death of a Canadian photojournalist in Iran was satisfactory. This statement was in reaction to reports that five Iranian security agents had been detained for the fatal beating. Iran's state-run radio reported days earlier that the men had been rounded up after "comprehensive investigations."
30 July: vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi said Ms. Kazemi was probably murdered by government agents. He admitted to reporters that she was likely killed by a deliberately delivered blow.
25 August: Iran announced charges of complicity in "quasi-intentional murder" against two interrogators from the Intelligence Ministry.
01 September: Tehran's deputy prosecutor general dropped the charges against the two intelligence officers and called for "further investigations". Foreign affairs minister Bill Graham says the withdrawn indictments could be a positive development for the investigation after suggestions the officials were being made scapegoats.
10 September: Bill Graham says he wants the UN Human Rights commission to help find out what really happened.
22 September: After a wrangle between reformist and conservative clans, which blamed each other for Kazemi's death, an Iranian intelligence agent, Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, was named as the suspected killer on this day.
07 October: Mohammed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi's trial opened in Tehran. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of "quasi intentional murder." The case was adjourned at Ahmadi's request for more time to study his charges.
08 October: President Mohammad Khatami says the court handling the case is trying to blame his administration.
14 October: A judge ordered Mr. Ahmadi released on $50,000 bail. Ahmadi's lawyer, Ghasem Shabani, told The Associated Press that the judge accepted the argument that his client should only be held if charged with deliberate murder.
28 October: The Iranian Parliament implicated chief Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi for failing to provide information and for making incorrect statements about Kazemi's death. He was condemned for refusing to justify her detention to Parliament, for accusing Kazemi of spying, and announcing the cause of her death as a stroke.
04 November: Shirian Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and former judge who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, asks to represent Kazemi's family.
December: Judicial service chief Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and intelligence minister Ali Younessi set up a committee at the end of this month, ostentibly with the aim of reviewing all of the facts of the case. RSF stated in its 17 Jul 2004 article that the real aim was to find a compromise, and quoted Shahroudi as saying at the time: "The important thing is not who killed Zahra Kazemi. Whether an agent with the intelligence ministry or a member of the Tehran prosecutor's staff, it doesn't matter. What counts is to name a suspect."

2004

15 February: The BBC reported that Kazemi would have survived the beating had doctors been allowed to treat her. A hospital witness told the broadcaster that guards prevented medical staff from providing treatment.
08 May: Stephan Hachemi, Kazemi's son, calls on Ottawa to get involved in the trial of his mother's alleged killer. He says only the Canadian government can ensure a fair trial.
12 June: Nobel Prize winner Shirian Ebadi was barred from representing the Kazemi family. Ms. Ebadi's name was not on a court list for the July hearing.
09 July: At a memorial service in his mother's honour, Stephan Hachemi said the Canadian government wasn't doing enough to solve her death.
14 July: Canada recalled the ambassador from Iran in the strongest possible diplomatic protest because of refusal to allow observers into the courtroom.
17 July: The court allowed observers to attend, and the recall was rescinded. Intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi pleaded innocent to what the Iranian judiciary calls "semi-premeditated murder." The four lawyers representing Ezzat Kazemi, Zahra's mother, rejected the prosecutors' contention that Ahmadi was responsible for Kazemi's death (it appears to be a fairly clear case of scapegoating). They refused to sign the record of proceedings and left the courthouse in protest. The evidence that was suppressed includes bloodied clothes, photographs, an MRI scan and a video; all of which show evidence of torture.
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the team, said she was ignored by the judge as she tried to introduce evidence and witnesses who say they saw a high-ranking judiciary official hit Kazemi on the head so hard she could no longer stand. Ms. Ebadi told the court that Mohammed Bakhshi dealt the first and most severe strike against Kazemi. Ms. Ebadi also alleged that the killing was pre-meditated. An official from the Tehran prosecutor's office told the court that the prison official has already been cleared; that there was not enough evidence to implicate him.
Ms. Kazemi was quoted,"I was forced to consent to quick burial. [...] Her breast had been burned, her hand and foot had been broken. I saw it myself."
18 July: Ambassador Philip MacKinnon, along with representatives of France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and journalists who had been allowed to watch the proceedings on Saturday, were barred from the courthouse on the second day of the trial. The observers were reportedly told they didn't have the "necessary permission" to attend the trial. Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also explained the refusal by saying "maybe they did not have enough chairs" in the courtroom. The trial was abruptly terminated and the court said it would issue a verdict at an unspecified later date. Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham issued a statement saying that he was "disappointed but not surprised by this flagrant denial of due process." Ambassador MacKinnon was subsequently recalled a again.
Reporters Without Borders said it was "disgusted" by the halting of the trial. The organization said in a statement, "We are appalled at this denial of justice. The Iranian judiciary has displayed intolerable cynicism and hypocrisy in a case which the world sees as a test of intent by the Iranian regime, which has been unanimously condemned by international human rights organisations. By turning the trial into a mockery, the authorities have once more totally discredited themselves and deserve to have sanctions imposed on them."
19 July: Saeed Mortazavi ordered Iranian newspapers to censor parts of the trial. Reporters Without Borders hit out at the closure of two of the more moderate Iranian newspaper. The group also called on the Iranian government to lift the suspensions immediately against the papers Vaghayeh Ettefaghieh and Jomhouriat and also criticised the suspension of the monthly Aftab. One journalist said Mortazavi had called him on Sunday, 18 Jul, to say: "'It's in your interest to consider the murder trial over and avoid publishing things that you should not.'" Hardliners in the government of Iran were angered after Ezzat Kazemi's legal team accused prison official Mohammad Bakhshi of inflicting the fatal blow, as well as accusing the Iranian judiciary of illegally detaining her. Most Iranian newspapers have not published these accusations against Bakhshi and the prosecution.
One of the affected journalists, in complaining about the censorship to reformist spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh after his weekly news conference, said, "I was afraid to publicly put this to you during the press conference because I was afraid of possible punishment from Mortazavi." Mr. Ramezanzadeh denounced the judiciary for closing down the newspapers and said judiciary actions were effectively discrediting the Islamic Republic. The judiciary had ordered the reformist publications to shut down when the trial opened.
20 July: In light of international criticisms, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefo said foreign governments "should stay away from the case". The Dutch presidency of the European Union had released a statement that said in part, "This situation can only strengthen our concern that justice may not be done in this case and that no light will be shed on the exact circumstances of the gruesome death in custody of Mrs Kazemi." Spokesman Asefo said the EU had no right to complain: "The EU presidency has overlooked that Kazemi was an Iranian national, and has reached assumptions which are basically incorrect and without legal basis. No foreign country has the right to tarnish the legitimate rights of other countries in the handling of their domestic affairs."
24 July: The court decided there was insufficient evidence to support the charges and Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi was acquitted [instead of the charges having been dropped or the case thrown out of court; most suspicious -- this move will allow Iran to invoke double jeopardy --MN]. Tehran offered $12,000 [U.S.?] of "blood money" to Stephan Hachemi in compensation for his mother's murder.
25 July: Reporters Without Borders denounced the trial as a sham.
26 July: Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said Iran's Intelligence Ministry was prepared to identify the person behind Kazemi's murder if the judiciary allows it to do so.
27 July: Stephan Hachemi called for the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador to Canada. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew was described by one news report as slow to decide on concrete action to show Ottawa's displeasure with the Iranian government. Government officials said they were considering a range of diplomatic pressure tactics, including the possibility of taking the case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague - another demand Hachemi has made. However, even his lawyer, John Terry, admitted that even if that court ruled against Iran there was no way of forcing Tehran to abide by the ruling.
In Geneva on Tuesday, a panel of United Nations human rights experts expressed their "profound" concern about Iranian legal proceedings in the Kazemi case. The panel said in a UN statement, "Many reports indicate that the proceedings did not meet international standards of fair trial because key evidence that might have incriminated judiciary officials, the prosecutor's office as well as the intelligence ministry were ignored by the court." The expert panel -- made up of independent judges and specialists in free speech and torture -- said Iranian authorities had failed to ensure an open trial and the independent functioning of the judiciary.
28 July: Iran's judiciary claimed that Ms. Kazemi died from a fall after her blood pressure [alternatively: her blood sugar level] dropped during a hunger strike. Canada categorically rejected this claim. The court said in a statement, "With the acquittal of the sole defendant, 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." The hard-line judiciary also denounced the reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami, accusing it of providing fuel for a "spiteful" foreign media in this same statement; accusing government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh of making "irresponsible" comments from 26 Jul and of inciting public opinion -- an allegation that could put the judiciary and government in a direct confrontation if it is formally pursued as a criminal charge. Judiciary spokesman Zahed Bashirirad said Wednesday there was no intention to indict Ramezanzdeh at the moment.
In response to this, Shirin Ebadi and her team released a statement urging the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, to name a judge independent of the prosecutor's office to review the entire file and allow an genuine reconstruction of the murder. The statement also contained some vital questions:
"It has been proved, including in statements from several witnesses present at the scene, that a senior official at Evin Prison struck Zahra Kazemi a very heavy blow on the left side of her head that broke her skull. We want to know why certain people want to cover up this case.
- Why was the identity not revealed of an interrogator of Zahra Kazemi, from 23 June at 10.30pm to 24 June at 2.30am, although the interrogation took place in the presence of the prosecutor and one of his assistants?
- Why were the records of the interrogation falsified?
- Why was the intelligence services proposal to take part in reconstruction of the murder scene not taken into account?"
29 July: Reporters Without Borders released a statement condemning the decision of the court:
"Reporters Without Borders cannot find words strong enough to describe the latest statements from the Iranian justice system. They dare to say that, since the man responsible for Kazemi's murder was acquitted - at a rigged trial - it proves that Zahra Kazemi died accidentally !
"This reasoning goes beyond the ridiculous and amounts to an affront. We join the lawyers in calling for a judge independent of the prosecutor's office, which is implicated in this case, for a full investigation of this murder that the legal authorities are trying to dress up as an accident."
14 August: CBC News Online reported that Ezzat Kazemi is seeking an appeal to the court verdict. She and Ms. Ebadi also want Saeed Mortazavi and Information Minister Ali Yunesi to take the stand. The article also reported that Stephan Hachemi was still demanding the return of his mother's body from Iran, and was pressuring Canada to take the case to the International Court of Justice.

2005

27 March: Dr. Shahram Azam spoke at a news conference in Ottawa on this day as to his treatment of Ms. Kazemi as his patient. He took over her case when she was admitted to the emergency room shortly after he came on shift at the Revolutionary Guard Hospital in Tehran. Speaking through an interpreter he said:
- Ms. Kazemi had numerous injuries including:
  - a damaged skull,
  - a broken nose,
  - broken fingers,
  - missing fingernails and toenails,
  - a smashed big toe,
  - a ruptured left eardrum,
  - battered feet,
  - evidence of a flogging,
  - bruises all over her body;
- "I could see this had been caused by torture ... it was the first time I'd seen someone who had been tortured. It was shocking";
- and: that as a male doctor in an army hospital he was not allowed to examine Kazemi's genitals, but a female nurse who tried to insert a urinary catheter noticed "brutal damage to the genital parts."
Dr. Azam was in Canada seeking refugee status. He had fled Iran with his wife and daughter during the summer of 2004, under the guise of seeking medical treatment.
16 May: A sham hearing was held in Iran. Shirin Ebadi, the Kazemi family's lawyer, Nobel peace laureate later said of it to Reporters Without Borders, "Instead of justice, the Iranian authorities organise so-called explanation sessions. We, the lawyers and the family, want a real court to try and convict those responsible for this murder. The hearing scheduled for 27 July will be another explanation session, like the one on 16 May. I think those who are guilty are playing for time."
09 July: Reporters sans frontières decried Iran's stonewalling on the case. The organisation said in a statement, "For two years now, Zahra Kazemi's family has been waiting for her body to be exhumed and repatriated to Canada, and press freedom activists throughout the world have waiting for justice to be done, but the Iranian authorities have decided otherwise. The international community must support Canada's initiatives and force Iran to give a full account of the circumstances of Kazemi's death."
2006
- 22 June: In an act of monstrous hypocrisy, Saeed Mortazavi showed up at the inaugural meetings of the new UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as as part of Iran's official delegation. His presence at the event shocked and appalled respecters of human rights. Unfortunately, they were unable to take action against him because he was protected by diplomatic immunity. Reporters Without Borders representative George Gordon-Lennox described Mortazavi's role as, "putting journalists in prison." Canada's Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said in a news release that he is disgusted by Iran's action, and commented: "The presence of Mr. Mortazavi in Iran's delegation demonstrates the government of Iran's complete contempt for internationally recognized principles of human rights." The government of Canada demanded Mortazavis' arrest. This week marks the third anniversary of Ms. Kazemi's arrest.
  For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki hurled accusations of abuse right back at the accusers, especially the United States, whose prisoners are: "tortured in solitary confinements for interrogation such as prisons in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."
  [A typically schizophrenic tu quoque argument by a dumb-ass bastard who apparently cannot tell one country from another, even when his government is engaged in a pissing contest with one of them over nuclear power programs, and has murdered a citizen of the other. --MN]
- 23 June: Iran went on the defensive for its ineffable stupidity in sending Mortazavi to the Human Rights Council conference. The government of Iran allowed a rare press conference with foreign journalists. Canada had called for the arrest and trial of Mortazavi despite his protection under diplomatic immunity. In an interview with CBC News, Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad dismissed Canada's demand as: "highly regrettable, a violation of international protocols." He went on to say that allegations of Mortazavi's involvement in the murder of Zahra Kazemi are unfounded, and commented: "The allegations are fabrications, baseless lies. The fact Canada's foreign minister was repeating them was libelous." The allegations against Mortazavi did not originate in Canada, however, but in Iran's former reformist parliament.
  In a scrum with reporters, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay replied to the charge by saying of the Iranian justice minister that he could: "Take me to court. Come to Canada and face it in the justice system, if that's what he believes. I don't put a lot of faith in what the Iranian justice minister has to say, frankly."
  [Good man! -- Mr. Mckay! Now, government: Get it right! Stand fast and kick ass! --MN]
- July 10: On the third anniversary of Zahra Kazemi's death, Reporters Without Borders condemned the "total impunity" prevailing in the case and called for a proper trial of all those responsible involved. The group commented:
  "There has been no progress in this case since the acquittal on 16 November 2005 of Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, the only person ever to be formally accused, and the Kazemi family lawyers have run into a wall of silence from the Iranian judicial authorities. We support the lawyers� demand for a fair and impartial trial to be finally held, one that would establish once and for all the circumstances in which Kazemi died."
  Mohamad Ali Dadkhah, one of the Kazemi family�s lawyers, was quoted as saying to the watchdog group:
  "After the appeal and its verdict, we were very hopeful that the supreme court would order the reopening of the case. Unfortunately, despite all our efforts, there has been a complete silence until now and our request has produced absolutely no reaction."
  The Tehran appeal court issued a ruling that upheld Ahmadi�s acquittal, but according to his lawyer and the Kazemi family lawyers, at the same time ordered that the case should be sent back to the prosecutor�s office and the investigation be reopened.
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Zahra Kazemi Murder Timeline

2003

2004

2005

2006