The abrupt ending of the trial of a man accused of killing an Iranian-born journalist has put the country in the hot seat again, writes Sherine Bahaa The controversial trial of an Iranian intelligence agent accused of killing an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist was terminated abruptly on the second day of the hearing last Sunday, 18 July. Zahra Kazemi, a 54-year-old Iranian born freelance photographer holding Canadian nationality, died in hospital from head injuries sustained during three days of interrogation. She fell into a coma and died in hospital on 10 July. Kazemi had been arrested for taking pictures outside Tehran's notorious Evin prison, at the time packed with anti-regime protesters, and was accused of being a spy. "It is not merely a death; it is murder, a crime. And the killing of a foreign reporter makes it a political crime," Mustafa El-Labbad, editor-in-chief of Sharq Nameh, a magazine specialising in Asian affairs, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The trial had resumed on Saturday after a nine-month delay. During the first session of the trial last year, Kazemi's mother accused Iranian officials of torturing her daughter to death. "There were burns on my daughter's chest; her fingers and toes and nose were broken," her mother told the court. Kazemi's defence team, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, said the trial was a farce and that an innocent man was being tried in order to protect a more senior official. The man accused of the "semi- intentional murder" of Kazemi is Mohamed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, a 42- year-old intelligence agent. He claims to be innocent, saying that a more senior intelligence official was responsible for her death. A day after the trial was suspended, a spokesman for the President Khatami said the reformist government would not accept a guilty verdict. The court case has served to expose the rift between president's reformist government and the hard-line judiciary El-Labbad, however, argues that there is no longer a definite distinction between the two entities. "Differences between the two camps are not very apparent. The reformists failed to win over public opinion in Iran and eventually lost the majority in this year's parliamentary elections. They were not reformists in the real sense of the word." The reformists, however, are pointing the finger at the head of the judiciary system who is a close associate of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was the mastermind behind a number of rulings against reformist figures. "The political responsibility should be borne by the judiciary system. In Iran, as in some other places, the judiciary system is politicised," said El- Labbad. The controversy surrounding the case is not helping Iran's current standing on the international stage. The country is already under pressure from world powers for its nuclear programme and its alleged links with Al-Qaeda organisation. A total media blackout on the second day of the hearing exasperated foreign diplomats and journalists, who were barred from entering the court. The case has also soured relations with Canada after the Canadian ambassador was refused entry to the court. He was recalled the following day. Iran insists the trial is a domestic affair and refuses to recognise Kazemi's dual nationality. According to an Iranian government spokesman, the presence of foreign nationals would in no way add to the fairness or impartiality of the trial. The trial is seen as a key test of Iran's willingness to tackle what human rights groups allege is the widespread use of torture in its prison system. Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi has said she is willing to take the case to an international court, something the Iranian authorities would be unwilling to accept. "The Iranian regime does not want to politicise the case," said El-Labbad. It is very obvious that major players in the international community, in particular the US, he continued, are simply interested in using the trial to place even more pressure on Iran.
