Iran Murder Trial Abruptly Halted

Iran’s hard-line judiciary Sunday abruptly ended the trial of an intelligence agent charged with murdering an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, prompting Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi to lead her legal team out of the court and threaten to take the case to international organizations.

No date was set for the verdict, but Ebadi’s team has said the agent on trial, Mohammed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, is innocent and his indictment was part of a cover-up. Ahmadi, the only person charged in the killing, has pleaded not guilty.

Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian freelance journalist of Iranian origin, died in July 2003 while in detention for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests against the government.

Iranian authorities initially claimed that Kazemi had died of a stroke. Later, however, a committee appointed by President Mohammad Khatami found that Kazemi had succumbed to a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage from a blow to the head.

The defendant’s “lawyer identified the real killer, but the court doesn’t want to pay attention,” said Ebadi, who represents the slain woman’s mother.

Ebadi’s team accused prison official Mohammed Bakhshi of inflicting the fatal blow. Bakhshi has been absolved, but under Iranian law, lawyers can accuse someone cleared of a crime.

“I wish the judiciary were independent and efficient,” Ebadi said. “But if it’s not provided ... there are international organizations” to do it, she told reporters.

The Canadian government has blamed Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi for the death, and reformists have accused him of trying to stage a cover-up. Mortazavi’s office has denied the allegations.