Kazemi beaten on head with shoe by Iranian official: French newspaper

myTELUS ^ | July 17 2003

[knighthawk]

MONTREAL (CP) - A Montreal-based photo journalist who died of a fractured skull in an Iranian hospital was beaten about the head with a shoe by a high-ranking Iranian official, the French newspaper Liberation reported Thursday.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said Said Mortazavi, an official with the ruling Islamic government in Tehran, used his shoe to deliver the blows to Zahra Kazemi. He had apparently been questioning Kazemi, who had been arrested for taking pictures of an Iranian prison.

Kazemi fell into a coma and was transported to a detention centre run by revolutionary guards before she was taken to hospital three days later, the newspaper said.

Kazemi, 54, a freelance photographer from Quebec, was arrested in Tehran on June 23 and branded a spy for taking photos of a prison during student- led protests against the ruling Islamic establishment. Kazemi held Iranian and Canadian citizenship.

Her only son, Stephan Hachemi of Montreal, said Wednesday his mother "won't be buried in the land of the people who murdered her."

Differing reports on how she died took over from days of confusion about whether or not her body had been buried and doubts still linger about that.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Xenalyte]

Musta been a big damn shoe.

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[Shermy]

web search on "Said Mortazavi" shows he is the head of the "Press Court" and is otherwise notorious.

[neutrino]

Well, well. It appears that the religion of peace, love, and respect for women strikes again...I mean that in both senses.

[AdmSmith]

Why a shoe?

Read this "The interrogator says, imagine you are now beaten up even more, that "you can't tolerate the pain". The prisoner starts saying, may be there is a car entrance ... she is then pressed to tell the exact day when the bomb was planted. She is beaten up with a shoe. [Note: some interpretations of Islam would disallow beating a woman by hand on religious grounds].

The interrogator say: "you are like an insect, while we crush you". She is seen being beaten up again with the shoe."

See videos here http://www.londonfreelance.org/Iran/videos.html

[knighthawk]

Thanks for the link.

Also it is humiliating to be beaten with a shoe.

[AdmSmith]

Also it is humiliating to be beaten with a shoe.

Yes, ask the fallen statue of Saddam Hussein.

[facedown]

Musta been a big damn shoe.

Maybe a clog?

[Moose4]

Followers of the Religion of Peace(tm) consider the soles of the feet to be unclean. Beating someone or something with a shoe is an insult and a sign of great disrespect. That's why you saw all those pictures of people in Iraq smacking portraits of Saddam with their shoes.

}:-)4

[Steely Glint]

Boy, I'm holding my breath until the liberal media pick up on this story big time and get all outraged about it. Not.

Imagine if this had happened in Iraq. It would be huge news and somehow it would all be George W.'s fault.

But, since it happened in Iran, in a country that is an enemy of the U.S., as far as the liberal media is concerned this event might as well never have happened at all.

[B Knotts]

OK, Canada.

It's your turn.

[B Knotts]

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

There's no shoe bigger than an Uncle Sam.

[Calvin Locke]

Any mention of being seen in the company of the Brothers Hussein?

[Calvin Locke]

Maybe a clog?

Palestinians import Irish bomb makers. Iran imports Irish dancers?

[Xenalyte]

Now that's a weapon!