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Live Thread Ping List | 7.25.2003 | DoctorZIn

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"The Iranian Government are Liars"

July 25, 2003
Vancouver Sun
Nicholas Read and Petti Fong

The family of the late Keyvan Tabesh, who was shot and killed by a Port Moody police officer July 14, was shocked Thursday to find itself in the eye of an international political storm.

Family members say they had no idea the Iranian government was going to use the death of their 18-year-old son and brother to deepen a diplomatic incident with Canada.

"We were surprised," said Keyvan's sister, Rita, in an interview at the door of the family home in Burnaby. "We never talk to the government."

"The problem is between Keyvan's family and the police," she said softly, but with emotion. "It is a social problem, not a political problem."

Keyvan, 18, was shot by a Port Moody police officer July 14 when he approached the officer with a machete in his hand.

Police say Keyvan had earlier struck another vehicle with a machete and that the police officer followed the car in which he was riding into the Port Moody cul-de-sac where the shooting occurred.

Amir Aghaei, another passenger in the car with Keyvan, also approached the officer and was wounded.

In Iran, the government, which is embroiled in a high-level diplomatic dispute with Canada over the beating death in Tehran of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi, said Thursday there is "fear and horror" among Canadian-Iranians following the shootings.

The Tabeshes are landed immigrants with family members still in Iran,

Rita said as soon as she learned that news of her brother's death was being reported in Iran and that his name was being mentioned by Iranian government officials, she phoned her husband, who is visiting relatives in Iran, to ask him to phone TV stations there and tell them to stop broadcasting the news.

"I told him to phone the media and tell them to stop spreading news in Iran," Rita said.

On Thursday, Rita and Keyvan's father, Nasser, didn't want to talk about what happened to Keyvan, saying only that the family plans to pursue the matter in court. Keyvan's mother, Forough Jabalameli, has been quoted as saying her son did not know he was being confronted by a policeman because the officer was dressed in civilian clothes and driving a vehicle without police markings.

Rita and Nasser both said Thursday Keyvan's death was not the business of the Iranian government, and they didn't want what happened to him to be used for political purposes.

"We don't want the government to use our family," Rita said. "We just want to know why the police killed our brother.

"We just want justice for our son," said Nasser. "We are not a political family. We are living in Canada now and we want justice in Canada."

The Tabeshes left Iran in 2000 and came to Canada for its educational opportunities, Rita said. Keyvan was finishing his last year of high school when he was killed, she said.

Amir Aghaei, who has recovered from his wound, was not available to comment Thursday, but his father, who declined to give his first name, said he agreed with the Tabeshes that what happened to his son was a matter for Canadian, not Iranian, authorities.

"The Iranian government are liars," Aghaei said. "This is not Iran's business. This happened in Canada, not Iran."

He said Amir has recovered from his injury, and the family plans to consult a lawyer to deal with the issue here.

"We will get a lawyer and we now will do everything by the law," he said. "It's a Canadian problem, not an Iranian problem."

He also said he did not want to talk about what happened between his son and the police.

Aghaei said he and his wife were "very, very upset" when they heard the news about the Iranian government involvement. "You have to know we will solve this problem in Canada," he said. "We love Canada."

Pari Saeedi, a spokeswoman with the Iranian-Canadian Community of Western Canada, said the Iranian government's comments are in direct retaliation for the Canadian government's demand for answers in Zahra Kazemi's death.

"This is bullying and the Canadian government should not buy it. They're covering their crime. Whatever happened here will be thoroughly investigated," she said Thursday.

Saeedi left Iran in 1985 and said she remains too fearful to return to visit her family. Relatives and friends still living in Iran tell her the country remains a virtual prison.

"You can close your eyes, shut your mouth and go back to see your family. And if you do see something or say anything they don't like, they'll torture you," she said.

Ken Taylor, a former Canadian ambassador to Tehran, said the Iranian government's call for transparency is "outrageous."

"It's total mischief and absolute nonsense to try and link the two cases together," said Taylor, who was Canada's ambassador to Iran in 1979-80. "It weakens their own case by taking this step."

Taylor said the police investigation into the Port Moody shooting is going to be transparent and will follow a set of procedures because the course of justice in Canada is subject to rules of law.

The Vancouver police department is offering assistance to the Port Moody police investigation into the shooting.

Inspector Chris Beach, who is in charge of the VPD's major crimes section, said a team of investigators is helping with the case.

The Iranian government's suggestion that the investigation into the Port Moody shooting may not be transparent shows poor knowledge of how the Canadian justice system works, according to Beach

"It's a ridiculous suggestion," Beach said. "It shows a complete lack of understanding. This is an investigation."

Port Moody Police Chief Paul Shrive said the homicide investigation is continuing into Tabesh's shooting and witnesses are still being interviewed.

"The attempts by any individuals whether in this country or outside to put any political spin will just not be entertained by us," Shrive said Thursday. "We're keeping our nose to the grindstone and investigating this homicide without any interference."

The unidentified officer who fired the shots joined the force two years ago from the RCMP and has 25 years of policing experience. He is on leave.

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=F74551EF-28FD-4404-9724-DE05586A436B

Reporters Without Borders Renewed Call for Independent Investigation

July 23, 2003
Reportes Without Borders
R.S.F

Reporters Without Borders called on the Canadian authorities to set up an international commission to investigate the death in custody in Iran of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who had both Canadian and Iranian citizenship, after the Iranian authorities created a new obstacle to any enquiry by hastily burying her today in Chiraz, her birthplace in the south of the country.

Kazemi's burial will make it "much more difficult to establish the truth" and was clearly intended to obstruct the investigation, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. "A new autopsy would have been needed and no doubt strong pressure was put on Kazemi's mother to retract the letter the signed on 19 July in the Canadian embassy in Tehran requesting that her daughter be buried in Canada," he added.

The burial took place just a few hours after the Iranian news agency Isna reported that Kazemi's mother had written to the Iranian authorities asking for her daughter to be buried in Iran. Astonishingly, the mother's letter was conveyed by a member of the governmental commission of enquiry set up by President Mohammad Khatami. The commission had until than opposed Kazemi's burial until the enquiry was completed.

Reporters Without Borders urged the Canadian government to take the initiative of setting up an international commission of enquiry and to pressure the Iranian government into accepting the commission.

"It is clear now that only an international enquiry will be able to identify who was involved," Ménard said. "The Iranian regime clearly has no desire to shed light on this case and prosecute those responsible for this murder."

The person currently in charge of the enquiry is the Tehran public prosecutor and revolutionary, Said Mortazavi, who is himself under suspicion. According to the commission set up by the president, Mortazavi personally attended the interrogation of Kazemi in the first few hours after her arrest in Tehran on 23 June. Mortazavi is known for cracking down on reformist newspapers for the past three years and having dozens of journalists detained.

A total of 21 journalists are currently in prison in Iran, 13 of whom were arrested in the past 40 days. This makes the Islamic republic the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East. Thirteen of the detained journalists are being held by Mortazavi's staff and Revolutionary Guards in the same centre where Kazemi was interrogated.

These detainees are denied all rights (such as visits from their lawyer and family) and are kept in deplorable conditions. Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about their fate, especially as their relatives have referred to physical and psychological torture in a letter to President Khatami.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7608

Germany Charges Iranian Man with Spying
World News
Jul 25, 2003

BERLIN - German federal prosecutors charged an Iranian man with spying Friday, accusing him of collecting information on Iranian opposition groups for the government in Tehran.

Prosecutors said in a statement that 65-year-old Iradj S., who also holds German citizenship, had worked for Iran's VEVAK secret service from 1991 to 2002.

They said he had gathered details of members and activities of the Iranian opposition groups as well as of former members of SAVAK, Iran's intelligence service under the Shah.

The man was arrested on June 12.

Iranians opposed to Islamic clerical rule in June staged the most outspoken wave of protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1395.shtml

Iran Names Judge to Probe Woman's Death

NYTimes 7.25.2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:46 p.m. ET

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran has named a veteran judge to lead an independent inquiry into the death of an Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in police custody, the prosecutor's office said Friday -- the second major investigation of the case in two weeks.

The death of Zahra Kazemi has become another dispute in the struggle for power between reformers and hard-liners who control Iran's police force, judiciary and security agencies. Reformers have called for the ouster of hard-liners they hold responsible for her death.

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The new inquiry was ordered by Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who demanded those behind the journalist's death face an open trial. Canada also recalled its ambassador, threatened sanctions and demanded a new investigation into the journalist's death.

Kazemi died July 10, nearly three weeks after she was detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests. After 77 hours of interrogation, she was rushed to an intensive care unit in a hospital controlled by hard-line Revolutionary Guards, where she died 14 days later.

Officials had tried to bury Kazemi quietly, saying she died of a stroke, but were stopped by presidential investigators. The reformist vice president then announced Kazemi died of a beating.

The presidential committee that investigated Kazemi's death said she had complained of punishment from her guards and died of a ``fractured skull, brain hemorrhage and its consequences resulting from a hard object hitting the head or the head hitting a hard object.''

In a letter published Thursday, Mohammad Hussein Khoshvaqt, head of the foreign press department, said Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi had forced him to announce that Kazemi had died of a stroke.

On Friday, a prosecutor's office official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Judge Javad Esmaeili will head the new probe and has begun preliminary investigations, including a visit Thursday to the Evin prison where Kazemi had been detained.

``Esmaeili's appointment is a step forward. At least the main suspect is not sitting as the judge,'' said reformist lawmaker Reza Yousefian.

Canada withdrew its ambassador after Kazemi was buried Wednesday in her birthplace, the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, against the wishes of Canadian authorities and her son, who lives in Montreal.

In a separate development Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi demanded a thorough investigation into the July 14 shooting death of an Iranian by Canadian police in Port Moody, a small city east of Vancouver.

Keyvan Tabesh, 18, of Burnaby, British Columbia, was waving a machete and running toward a plainclothes police officer when the officer killed him. Tabesh was an Iranian citizen with immigrant status who had lived in Canada for about two years.

``The Canadian government has failed in its diplomatic responsibility to report this case to the Islamic Republic of Iran quickly,'' Kharrazi said in remarks carried by state-run Tehran TV.

A spokesman for Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited Iran to send observers to Canada to oversee the police investigation into Tabesh's death.

``We are ready to offer them (Iran) complete and unfettered assistance in communicating with the authorities,'' Reynald Doiron said Friday.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iran-Canada-Journalist.html

Don’t give US an excuse: Khatami

TEHRAN: The United States wants to overthrow the Islamic regime in Tehran, which must avoid giving Washington any excuse to step up its campaign, Iranian President Khatami said Thursday.

“The White House is taking a stand against the Iranians and wants to overthrow the Islamic regime, but we should not give them any pretext,” he said addressing a crowd in Firuzkuh. —AFP

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_25-7-2003_pg7_12

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Live Thread Ping List | 7.26.2003 | DoctorZIn

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