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Iranian Doctor defects - Zahra Kazemi murder case
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Liberator



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PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:35 pm    Post subject: Iranian Doctor defects - Zahra Kazemi murder case Reply with quote

Subject: Iranian Doctor defects
Source: Iran Press News
Date 30-03-2005


http://www.marzeporgohar.org/index.php?act...&n_id=21427&l=1






A doctor employed at Bagheeyehollah Hospital in Tehran (connected with the revolutionary guards) where Zahra Kazemi, deceased Iranian/Canadian photojournalist was transfered before dying, left Iran and for the first time, in an interview with a German publication divulged that the regime's interogators and goons had brutally gang-raped the photojournalist while she was under qustioning and torture.

The German weekly, Die Zeit [in the Thursday, March 31st issue] states that Kazemi was delivered to the hospital directly after undergoing severe torture in prison; she died on July 11th, 2003. Dr. Shahram Azam, who examined Kazemi at the hospital was able to provide a firsthand account. Fifty four year old Kazemi was in a coma when delivered to the hospital in the early hours of June 27th 2003; her body was covered with contusions and as such, she was transfered to the emergency room of Bagheeyehollah Hospital.

Dr. Azam reports that it was quite clear that she had been severely tortured and brutally gang-raped. He went on to say that the regime's authorities (the security forces and the judiciary) continue to play the blame game and therefore at this juncture felt that there was nothing left for him to do but to leave Iran and find a way to inform the world of the regime's barbarous nature and the brutality perpatrated on the Iran people, on a daily basis, all over Iran for 26 years now.

Dr. Azam left Iran with his wife and daughter and has moved Canada on assylum for the time being.



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Khorshid



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PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



Signs of torture on every part of her body, and gang raped.

Allah indeed be praised!

.
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Spenta



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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

and take a moment to consider how many thousands of other women and girls they did this to!
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BitWhys



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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

its made mainstream in Canada

Kazemi was tortured: Iranian doctor

Quote:
Last Updated Thu, 31 Mar 2005 07:33:22 EST
CBC News
MONTREAL - Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi showed signs of being savagely beaten when she was brought to a Tehran hospital in 2003, said an emergency room doctor on duty at the time.

INDEPTH: Kazemi, Zahra

Shahram Azam, a former staff physician in Iran's defence ministry, said he examined Kazemi, the 54-year-old Iranian-born Montrealer, early on June 27, 2003, according to reports published in the Globe and Mail and Montreal's La Presse.

Kazemi had been arrested four days earlier while photographing a demonstration outside Tehran's Evin prison. She died in Iranian custody in July 2003. Iran's government admitted she'd been beaten but maintains her death was accidental. An Iranian security agent was charged and acquitted of killing her.

According to Azam, who now lives in Canada, Kazemi's entire body had strange markings all over it.

Azam described massive bruising around her head and ears. Her skull had been fractured and her nose broken. Two fingers were also broken and were missing fingernails.

Kazemi also had severe abdominal bruising and showed evidence of being flogged on the legs. There were also signs of a "very brutal rape," according to the doctor.

Azam, who recently received political asylum in Canada, intends to tell his story at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

He fled Iran last August, going first to Finland, then Sweden, before contacting Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi. With the help of Canadian lawyers, Hachemi helped Azam and his family get to Canada.

This month Azam received landed immigrant status as a refugee sponsored by the Canadian government.

Azam told the Globe he wants to renew worldwide attention on Kazemi's case. He hopes it will ultimately lead to the "indictment" of Iran's Islamic Republic.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doctor describes injuries to Canadian woman by Iranian authorities
Last Updated Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:16:17 EST
CBC News


http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...emi-050331.html





MONTREAL - Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi showed signs of being savagely beaten when she was brought to a Tehran hospital in 2003, said an emergency room doctor on duty at the time.


Former staff physician in Iran's defence ministry, Shahram Azam.

Shahram Azam, a former staff physician in Iran's defence ministry, said he examined Kazemi, the 54-year-old Iranian-born Montrealer, early on June 27, 2003, according to reports published in the Globe and Mail and Montreal's La Presse.

Kazemi had been arrested four days earlier while photographing a demonstration outside Tehran's Evin prison. She died in Iranian custody in July 2003. Iran's government admitted she'd been beaten but maintains her death was accidental. An Iranian security agent was charged and acquitted of killing her.

According to Azam, who now lives in Canada, Kazemi's entire body had strange markings all over it.

Azam described massive bruising around her head and ears. Her skull had been fractured and her nose broken. Two fingers were also broken and were missing fingernails.





Kazemi also had severe abdominal bruising and showed evidence of being flogged on the legs. There were also signs of a "very brutal rape," according to the doctor.

Azam, who recently received political asylum in Canada, intends to tell his story at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
Zahra Kazemi

He fled Iran last August, going first to Finland, then Sweden, before contacting Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi. With the help of Canadian lawyers, Hachemi helped Azam and his family get to Canada.

This month Azam received landed immigrant status as a refugee sponsored by the Canadian government.

Azam told the Globe he wants to renew worldwide attention on Kazemi's case. He hopes it will ultimately lead to the "indictment" of Iran's Islamic Republic.



********************************************************************











INDEPTH: ZAHRA KAZEMI
Iran's changing story
CBC News Online | Updated July 28, 2004


http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/kazemi/



Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in Iranian custody in July 2003 after being arrested for taking pictures outside a prison during a student protest in Tehran.

At first, Iran said Kazemi died of a stroke. Later, the Iranian government said Kazemi died as a result of being beaten. An Iranian security agent was charged and acquitted of killing her. Iran now says Kazemi's death was an "accident."

Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, is demanding the return of his mother's body and is pressuring Canada to take the case to the International Court of Justice.

July 28, 2004
Iran's judiciary says the head injuries that killed Kazemi were the result of an accident. "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," says a judiciary statement.
» Related story

July 27, 2004
Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, meets with Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, but doesn't get a commitment for action from Ottawa. "The minister failed me and failed to have my mother's rights respected," he says.
» Related story

July 25, 2004
Stephan Hachemi rejects $12,000 in compensation for his mother's death from the Iranian government, calling it "blood money."

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew says he is dissatisfied with the trial and acquittal of Kazemi's accused killer. "This trial has done nothing to answer the real questions about how Zahra Kazemi died or to bring the perpetrators of her murder to justice," he says in a statement.
» Related story

July 24, 2004
An Iranian court acquits intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi in Kazemi's death. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, calls on Ottawa "to bring justice to this case."
» Related story

July 19, 2004 Iranian journalists say a prosecutor warned them to censor their coverage of the trial of Kazemi's alleged killer.
» Related story

July 18, 2004
Canada again recalls its ambassador to Iran after a court in Tehran bans foreign observers from watching the second day of proceedings. The trial ends with no word of a verdict. The legal team representing Kazemi's mother refuses to sign the record of proceedings and leaves the courthouse in protest.
» Related story

July 17, 2004
Canadian observers, including Canada's ambassador to Iran, Philip MacKinnon, are allowed to attend the trail of an Iranian agent charged in Kazemi's death.
» Related story

At the trial, lawyers representing Kazemi's mother say prison official Mohammad Bakhshi, not the man on trial, tortured and killed her in a premeditated way. Iranian officials deny the claims.
» Related story

Two reformist newspapers are forced to shut down when the trial begins.

July 14, 2004
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham says the Canadian government will not be allowed to attend the trial of an Iranian agent charged in Kazemi's death. He also announces that Canada's ambassador to Iran has been recalled. Graham says he plans to take the case to the UN's International Court of Justice.
» Related Story

July 9, 2004
At a memorial service in Kazemi's honour, her son, Stephan Hachemi, says the Canadian government hasn't done enough to solve her death.
» Related Story

June 12, 2004
Nobel Prize winner Shirian Ebadi is barred from representing the family of Zahra Kazemi at the trial of the security agent charged with her death. Ebadi's name doesn't appear on a court list for the July hearing.
» Related Story

May 8, 2004
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.
» Related Story

Feb. 15, 2004
The BBC reports that Kazemi would have survived the beating given to her had doctors been allowed to treat her. A hospital witness told the broadcaster that guards prevented medical staff from treating her.
» Related Story

Nov. 4, 2003
Shirian Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and former judge who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, asks to represent Kazemi's family.
» Related Story

Oct. 28, 2003
The Iranian Parliament implicates a chief Tehran prosecutor for failing to provide information and making incorrect statements about Kazemi's death. Saeed Mortazavi is condemned for refusing to justify Kazemi's detention to Parliament, for accusing Kazemi of spying and announcing the cause of her death as a stroke.
» Related Story

Oct. 14, 2003
An Iranian judge ordered Mohammed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, an Iranian intelligence agent accused of murdering Zahra Kazemi, to be released on $50,000 bail. Ahmadi's lawyer, Ghasem Shabani, told The Associated Press the judge accepted the argument that his client should only be held in custody if charged with deliberate murder.
» Related Story

Oct. 8, 2003
The president of Iran criticises the judiciary handling the murder trial of intelligence officer Mohammed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, charged in the death of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. President Mohammad Khatami says the court handling the case is trying to blame his administration.
» Related Story

Oct. 7, 2003
The trial of Mohammed Reza Aghdam Ahmadi opens in Tehran. The 42-year-old Iranian intelligence agent pleads not guilty in the death of Zahra Kazemi. Ahmadi is charged with "quasi intentional murder." Conviction carries a sentence of up to three years in prison and the payment of money to the family of the victim if requested. The case was adjourned at Ahmadi's request for more time to study his charges.
» Related Story

Sept. 22, 2003
A judge charges an Iranian Intelligence Ministry agent with 'semi-premeditated murder' in the killing of Zahra Kazemi. The agent was one of two Intelligence Ministry officials charged September 1 in Kazemi's death. The second agent was acquitted.
» Related story

Sept. 10, 2003
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham says he wants the UN Human Rights commission to help find out what really happened when Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in a jail in Iran.
» Related story

Sept. 1, 2003
Tehran's deputy prosecutor general drops charges against two intelligence officers and calls for "further investigations" into Zahra Kazemi's murder. 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.
» Related story

Aug.25, 2003
Iran announces charges of complicity in "quasi-intentional murder" against two interrogators from the Intelligence Ministry.
» Related story

July 30, 2003
Iran's vice-president says Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was probably murdered by government agents. Mohammad Ali Abtahi admitted to reporters that Kazemi was likely killed by a deliberately delivered blow to the head following her arrest June 23 after she took some photos outside a Tehran prison.
» Related story

July 27, 2003
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Isabelle Savard says the arrest of five people in the beating death of a Canadian photojournalist in Iran would satisfy Canada. She makes the statement in reaction to reports that five Iranian security agents had been detained in the fatal beating of Zahra Kazemi while she was in police custody. Iran's state-run radio reported days earlier that the men had been rounded up after "comprehensive investigations."
» Related story

July 25, 2003
Diplomatic relations between Canada and Iran deteriorate as the ambassador to Iran returns to Ottawa and the foreign affairs minister rejects claims of Canadian injustice. Iran accused a B.C. police officer of murdering one of its nationals. A Port Moody police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Keyvan Tabesh on July 21. They allege he threatened them with a machete. Iranian officials call the shooting "incomprehensible" and demand those responsible be brought to justice.
» Related story

July 23, 2003
Angry with the way Iran has dealt with the death of Zahra Kazemi, Canada recalls ambassador Philip MacKinnon from Iran. Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham calls the move "a strong indication in diplomatic terms of the complete dissatisfaction of one government to another government."
» Related story



Iran's handling of the investigation into Zahra Kazemi's death - and the decision to bury Kazemi in Iran - led to negative reaction in Canada, as suggested by this political cartoon. (Patrick Corrigan/Toronto Star)


July 21, 2003
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham joins in the call for swifter action in the investigation into the death of Zahra Kazemi. He says 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."
» Related story

July 20, 2003
Iran's official news agency reports that Kazemi died from a fractured skull caused by "a physical attack." The same day, Stephan Hachemi - Kazemi's son - tells reporters Canada is not pressing Iran hard enough to get her body home.
» Related story

July 16, 2003
Iran admits Kazemi died after beating.
» Related story

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Iran's vice-president, admits that Kazemi died as a result of being beaten. "If crimes have been committed," says Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, "we're pushing the Iranian government to punish those who committed the crime."

July 14, 2003
Deputy Prime Minister John Manley calls on Iran to return the body of Zahra Kazemi to Canada.
» Related story

July 13, 2003
Iran's official news agency reports that Kazemi "suffered a stroke when she was subject to interrogation and died in hospital." The same day, under pressure from Canada, Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, orders an investigation into her death.
» Related story

July 12, 2003
Ottawa orders Canada's ambassador to Iran - Philip MacKinnon - to investigate Kazemi's death.

July 11, 2003
Kazemi dies in Tehran hospital while under guard.
» Related story

June 23, 2003
Kazemi is arrested while taking photographs outside Evin prison in Tehran during student-led protests. She is later taken into custody and interrogated by police, prosecutors and intelligence officials for 77 hours.

Spring 2003
Kazemi leaves Canada for Iran.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:10 pm    Post subject: Rape, torture and lies Reply with quote

Rape, torture and lies


Thu. 31 Mar 2005
Source URL: http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1770

The Globe and Mail

DOCTOR REVEALS WHAT HAPPENED TO CANADIAN ZAHRA KAZEMI IN IRAN

By ARNE RUTH AND HAIDEH DARAGAHI

Page A1

STOCKHOLM - Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was savagely beaten, tortured and raped while in Iranian custody in 2003, according to an emergency-room doctor who examined her before she died.

The doctor has recently received political asylum in Canada.

Shahram Azam, formerly a physician on the staff of the Iranian Ministry of Defence, says he examined Ms. Kazemi, a 54-year-old Iranian-born dual citizen, at Tehran's Baghiattulah hospital early on the morning of June 27, 2003 -- four days after she was arrested while photographing a demonstration outside Tehran's Evin prison.

His account of Ms. Kazemi's condition in the days before her death, the first by a medical eye witness, confirms that she was tortured -- far more brutally than even critics of Iran's hard-line theocratic regime had believed.

"Her entire body carried strange marks of violence," Dr. Azam said. "She had a big bruise on the right side of her forehead stretching down to the ear. The ear drum was intact, but the membrane in one of her ears had recently burst, and a loose blood vessel could be seen. Behind the head, on the left-hand side, was a big, loose swelling. Three deep scratches behind her neck looked like the result of nails digging into the flesh. The right shoulder was bruised, and on the left hand two fingers were broken. Three fingers had broken nails or no nails."

Dr. Azam's account of his examination, which he intends to describe at a press conference in Ottawa today, goes on to describe severe abdominal bruising, "stretching over the thigh down to the knees." Though male doctors in Iran are not allowed to carry out vaginal exams, Dr. Azam's emergency-room nurse thoroughly examined Ms. Kazemi and found the bruising to be the result of "a very brutal rape."

The nurse told him that "the entire genital area had been damaged," Dr. Azam said.

There was also evidence Ms. Kazemi had been whipped.

"The backs of both legs where the skin had come off indicated flogging, five marks on one leg and seven on the other. The big toe on the left leg was crushed," he said.

Though senior Iranian officials have at various times acknowledged that Ms. Kazemi was murdered by state security officers -- Iran's ambassador to the United Kingdom said as much in February, but later retracted his remarks -- the official Iranian position is that Ms. Kazemi died after she fainted, fell and hit her head.

Canada has tried to pressure the Iranian regime, without visible success, into reopening the case. Canada's ambassador to Iran was withdrawn last July, after a lower-level Iranian official was acquitted in a brief trial that was widely viewed as a sham. A new ambassador was sent to Tehran in November.

Dr. Azam fled Iran last August under the guise of seeking medical treatment in Finland. He later went to Sweden and from there applied for political asylum in Canada. This month he received landed-immigrant status as a refugee sponsored by the Canadian government.

He, his wife and 12-year-old daughter landed in Canada on Monday. For security reasons, he has not revealed where in the country they intend to settle.

Dr. Azam wants to testify to what he saw in a public hearing, he said, in hopes that the truth about Ms. Kazemi's death will renew worldwide attention on her case, and ultimately lead to the "indictment" of Iran's Islamic Republic.

***

What the doctor found:

"Her entire body carried strange marks of violence."

-Tehran ER physician Shahram Azam

*Bruised from forehead to ear

*Skull fracture

*Two broken fingers

*Broken and missing fingernails

*Severe abdominal bruising

*Evidence of 'very brutal rape'

*Swelling behind the head

*Burst ear membrane

*Bruised shoulder

*Deep scratches on the neck

*Broken 'nose-bone'

*Evidence of flogging to the legs

*Crushed big toe

What the Iranians said:

'The death of the late Kazemi was an accident due to a fall in blood pressure resulting from hunger strike and her fall on the ground while standing.'

-Iranian judicial branch, July 28, 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doctor Reveals What Happened to Kazemi

March 31, 2005
The Globe and mail
Arne Ruth and Haideh Daragahi


http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl...5&m=03&d=31&a=7



Dr. Shahram Azam, an unassuming, intense man in his late 30s, had barely started his emergency-room shift when he admitted a female patient on a stretcher from Tehran's Evin prison at 12:15 a.m. on June 27, 2003. Zahra Kazemi was accompanied by three guards and a written diagnosis of hemorrhage as a result of digestive problems. Dr. Shahram Azam soon found that she was deeply unconscious due to a skull fracture and had wounds and bruises all over her body.

"The first time I set eyes on her, she was an unconscious woman lying under a sheet on a stretcher with just a bruise on her forehead," he recalled. "Acting on the diagnosis sent from the prison clinic, a nurse tried to pass a tube to her stomach through her nose, but we discovered that the nose bone had been broken."

It was immediately obvious that Ms. Kazemi had been severely beaten, Dr. Azam said.

Three hours later that same night, as he was taking Ms. Kazemi to the CAT scan, he passed two colleagues who were not on the hospital staff, but had brought their own patients in to take advantage of the hospital's excellent equipment.

"They were terribly shaken when they saw Ms. Kazemi's condition," Dr. Azam said.

"When they asked what had happened and I said she'd been severely beaten, they asked if she'd been sent from prison. I said yes. Before I inquired further, they volunteered information about her background and the circumstances of her capture. I didn't ask, but I take it that they had been present at the demonstration where Zahra Kazemi had been arrested."

It was then, Dr. Azam said, "that I understood the political implications of her condition."

Accused of spying, Ms. Kazemi had been kept in custody under the supervision of Tehran's General Prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, until her transfer to the Baghiattulah hospital.

Mr. Mortazavi, a crony of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was already known for his decision to close 150 newspapers within a month in 2000, thereby signalling the end of hopes for a new political opening in Iran.

Hours after being admitted on June 27, Ms. Kazemi was declared brain-dead. She was kept on life support for another two weeks.

On July 10, Canada's Foreign Affairs Department summoned Iran's ambassador to a meeting, at which it demanded both independent medical treatment and an investigation into Ms. Kazemi's injuries. On July 11 she was taken off life support. Her death was announced the next day by Iran's Ministry of Information. There was no mention of violence as the cause of death.

Ms. Kazemi's family immediately requested that her body be returned to Canada for autopsy and burial. Instead, she was hastily buried in her city of birth, Shiraz, in southern Iran.

Soon after, Ms. Kazemi's mother testified that she had been forced by authorities to sign a document authorizing the burial.

Amid intense international pressure and fierce factional infighting between Iranian reformers and hard-liners, an Iranian parliamentary investigation was launched, parallel to an inquiry by a five-member ministerial committee set up by President Mohammed Khatami.

It emerged during the parliamentary inquiry that Mr. Mortazavi had tried to cover up the cause of Ms. Kazemi's death by forcing Information Ministry officials, under threat of arrest, to say she'd died of a stroke.

There was also testimony, later withdrawn, that Ms. Kazemi had been beaten unconscious within an hour of her arrest, when a prison official tried to confiscate her camera.

An official at the reformist-leaning Ministry of Information, Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, was named in September of 2003 as the suspected killer. Mr. Ahmadi was cleared of the murder charge on July 24 of last year.

During his trial, lawyers representing Ms. Kazemi's mother named Mohammad Bakhshi, the head of security at Evin prison and a political ally of Mr. Mortazavi, as the possible killer.

Four days later, Iran's judiciary stated that the head injuries that had killed Ms. Kazemi were the result of an accident.

"With the acquittal of the sole defendant, only one option is left: The death of the late Kazemi was an accident due to a fall in blood pressure resulting from a hunger strike and her fall on the ground while standing," the official Iranian statement said.

Despite protracted diplomatic efforts by Foreign Affairs, among others, to have that decision overturned and a new investigation launched, this remains Iran's position today.

This outcome came as no surprise to Dr. Azam. Given the fact that three of the five ministers on Iran's presidential committee had known about Ms. Kazemi's arrest and had done nothing to reverse it, he said, the stage was set for a series of smokescreens from all parts of the power structure.

The efforts of both the reformist and hard-line factions to cover up what happened have, in Dr. Azam's view, been laughable. He believes the regime, not used to demands for accountability, has fallen into disarray.

"Neither of the two sides in power seemed to be interested in anything but passing the buck," he said. "The ministers claimed there were no traces of deliberate damage to her body after they'd interviewed us in the hospital."

Dr. Azam cited their words: "It is not clear whether death was caused by a hard object hitting the head or by the head hitting a hard object."

Given that Ms. Kazemi's entire body was testimony to the use of torture, Dr. Azam said, he felt he had no choice but to find a way to tell the truth. He knew he couldn't do this in Iran. "I'd meet a fate as bad as hers. I discussed it with my wife, and we both agreed that we should leave."

He and his wife of 19 years, Forouzan, made the decision together, he said. The tale of their escape reads like the plot of an espionage thriller.

Bound by the rule that bars military men from leaving Iran except on official duty, Dr. Azam had to find an excuse to seek special permission to go abroad without arousing suspicion.

The chronic injury he'd suffered as a 15-year-old soldier in the Iran-Iraq war solved the problem. He was allowed to seek special treatment in the West on condition that he left the deeds of the family house in Tehran as collateral.

Dr. Azam used Sweden, where he has family, as a base to wait for a courier who would take out of Iran documents that prove his case. Meanwhile, he was searching for Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hashemi.

"I did not tell the Swedish immigration authorities the full story. I wasn't sure that it wouldn't leak to the Iranians. I was set on coming to Canada to testify in court."

The months of uncertainty he spent in Sweden, without police protection, waiting for his asylum application to be processed, were far from easy, he said. Had neither Canada nor Europe accepted him, he would have tried to find his way to South Africa or Venezuela, he said.

Eventually Mr. Hashemi and his lawyers came to Stockholm for a face-to-face meeting, Dr. Azam said.

"I told them from the beginning that I was not looking for publicity or a scandal. I'm only looking for a judicial following of the case. I would like this case to be taken up by democratic states and human-rights organizations, leading, hopefully, to the indictment of the Islamic Republic."

In interviews that began in Stockholm last December, Dr. Azam explained why he couldn't keep what he'd observed to himself.

"I'd say that I am primarily a member of the human race, then I am an Iranian, then a physician," he said.

"Meanwhile, I'm also a father, a husband and so on. As a doctor, I have taken the oath of Hippocrates, whereby I have sworn to help humanity to my utmost, to safeguard the health and well-being of patients, irrespective of race, sex or religion."

He wants to testify at a hearing that will make clear to the world what he knows, he said. To his mind, he has observed a death caused by torture, and keeping quiet about it would make him an accessory.

He added that he hopes his testimony will set in motion a process whereby all the available evidence will be collected, examined and discussed by an international court to show how, in the Islamic Republic, a person on the street can be captured, reduced to pulp within five days, and discarded.

"Events in and around Iran right now suggest we are at a watershed." he said.

"The world is more sensitive than usual to human rights abuses in my country. Even inside the country, the cost to the regime of arbitrary arrests and killings has gone up. At the very least, my testimony could force the power holders in the country to realize that they might have to pay up."

Dr. Azam believes that the dominant political mood in the country is an ardent desire for change, coupled with a weariness of violence.

"A friend of mine said that in 1979, when the heads of the shah's regime were executed without trial, and the intellectuals, the political organizations and the general public did not protest, they sowed the seeds of the violence and the executions in prisons in the late 1980s. This time we do not want any revenge at all. We joke among ourselves, saying: 'We are prepared to pay Khamenei out of our own pockets if he just goes.' "

He added: "I'm quite ashamed and humiliated when I hear that there are doctors who contribute to torture, who are prepared to harm, rather than heal. For my part, what has happened and I know about, should not be allowed to be repeated."

Haideh Daragahi is a Swedish-Iranian writer, journalist and academic committed to freedom of expression and women's rights issues in relation to immigrant communities.

Arne Ruth, former editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm, is a writer and lecturer on politics, culture and human rights and a winner of the Swedish Grand Award for Journalistic Achievement. He is a member of the board of the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the Article 19 Freedom of Expression Centre in London.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doctor Says Kazemi Was Tortured

March 31, 2005
Edmonton Sun
CP




MONTREAL -- An emergency room doctor present when Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was brought in to a Tehran hospital says she showed obvious signs of torture. Shahram Aazam says Iranian native had been beaten, her fingernails pulled out, legs lacerated and fingers broken. He also said the 54-year-old showed signs of being raped when she was brought into the Tehran hospital in June 2003 after being detained for three days.

Kazemi, who was arrested by Iranian authorities while photographing a demonstration, died shortly afterward.

Aazam recently arrived in Canada with his family after gaining refugee status.

"Everything I saw indicated it was organized torture and not an injury that caused her death," he said.

The case has caused diplomatic tension between Canada and Iran. Iran has refused to return Kazemi's remains to her son and has resisted attempts by Canada to have her attackers punished.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zahra Kazemi was brutally gang raped by the regime's interogators

http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/sourc...rce/004138.html


Iran Press News: A doctor employed at Bagheeyehollah Hospital in Tehran (connected with the revolutionary guards) where Zahra Kazemi, deceased Iranian/Canadian photojournalist was transfered before dying, left Iran and for the first time, in an interview with a German publication divulged that the regime's interogators and goons had brutally gang-raped the photojournalist while she was under qustioning and torture.

The German weekly, Die Zeit [in the Thursday, March 31st issue] states that Kazemi was delivered to the hospital directly after undergoing severe torture in prison; she died on July 11th, 2003.

Dr. Shahram Azam, who examined Kazemi at the hospital was able to provide a firsthand account. Fifty four year old Kazemi was in a coma when delivered to the hospital in the early hours of June 27th 2003; her body was covered with contusions and as such, she was transfered to the emergency room of Bagheeyehollah Hospital.

Dr. Azam reports that it was quite clear that she had been severely tortured and brutally gang-raped. He went on to say that the regime's authorities (the security forces and the judiciary) continue to play the blame game and therefore at this juncture felt that there was nothing left for him to do but to leave Iran and find a way to inform the world of the regime's barbarous nature and the brutality perpatrated on the Iran people, on a daily basis, all over Iran for 26 years now.

Dr. Azam left Iran with his wife and daughter and has moved Canada on assylum for the time being.



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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Could this be the back-breaking, 'smoking gun' for this murdering, raping, gang of thugs? Could Ms. Kazemi's brutal fate bring Canada's government over to the side of regime change through sanctions, and with it, other left-leaning governments? Could hundreds of thousands soon be marching in Tehran's streets behind her portrait?
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:59 pm    Post subject: Kazemi's son vows to continue fightBy TERRY WEBER Reply with quote

Kazemi's son vows to continue fightBy TERRY WEBER
Source URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050331.wxdoctor0331fr_2/BNStory/Front/



Thursday, March 31, 2005 Updated at 12:59 PM EST

Globe and Mail Update

The son of a Montreal photographer who died while in custody in Iran vowed to continue an aggressive fight for justice Thursday in the wake of shocking new details about the woman's condition in the days before her death.

"It's hard to describe what I feel and I refuse to just go down on my emotions and cry," Stephan Hachemi told reporters in Ottawa, after a former physician with the Iranian Ministry of Defence detailed Zahra Kazemi's injuries just four days before her 2003 death.

"But, I have the same attitude that I've always had which is to proceed aggressively in this case to get justice for my mother and to make an example of this case to make sure we have rights as Canadians."

The new details in the case — which paint a picture of a woman raped and tortured before her death — also prompted renewed calls from critics for immediate government action on the latest revelations, including the withdrawal of Canada's ambassador to Iran.


"The federal government must acknowledge that its strategy of soft diplomacy towards the brutish Iranian regime has been an utter failure," Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day said.

The 54-year-old photojournalist died on July 10, 2003 in Tehran. An Iranian-born photographer who also had Canadian citizenship, she was beaten to death after being arrested for taking photos of protesters outside a Tehran prison.

The Canadian government was frustrated by efforts by the country's hard-line judiciary to censor news accounts of the trial of an intelligence officer accused of killing the Montreal woman.

Although the trial was initially open to then-Canadian ambassador Philip MacKinnon and other foreign observers, they were eventually not allowed in.

The Iranian judiciary later said the Montreal photographer died when she fell on the ground and hit her head, and a Tehran court acquitted the intelligence agent.

But, during Thursday's news conference, Shahram Azam, a former physician with the Iranian Department of Defence, confirmed details reported in The Globe and Mail, which offered evidence that Ms. Kazemi had been brutally tortured, beaten and raped before her death.

Speaking through a translator, he detailed scores of injuries he observed on Ms. Kazemi, who had been brought to Tehran's Baghiattulah hospital early on the morning of June 27, 2003.

Dr. Azam's observations are the first from a medical eyewitness in the case.

"As a doctor I could see this was torture," Dr. Azam, who fled Iran and has been granted landed immigrant status in Canada, told reporters.

He said Ms. Kazemi was battered from head to foot, with markings consistent with flogging on a number of areas of her body.

Her nose had been broken so badly that a nurse was unable to insert a tube when the unconscious woman was brought in. A vaginal exam carried out by a nurse — doctors in military hospitals in Iran are not allowed to carry out the procedure — showed massive bruising in the genital area, offering evidence of a brutal rape.

"It was the first time I saw a patient brought in from a prison," Dr. Azam said. "It was so shocking for me."

Following Dr. Azam's comments, Mr. Hachemi said he was grateful for the relative speed that the Canadian government acted on allowing Dr. Azam to come to Canada, but said he was frustrated with Ottawa's overall progress on the case.

"It's everybody's responsibility," he said. "It's not a personal matter. It's a national matter, an international matter."

In a televised interview later, Mr. Hachemi also said Ottawa's relatively quick action on allowing Dr. Azam into the country gives reason for optimism that further action will follow.

"I'm really looking forward to them acting on this new development," he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew was to meet with reporters in Toronto later Thursday to discuss the latest developments.

Mr. Day said Ottawa must withdraw its ambassador to Iran and impose sanctions on the Iranian government if it fails to act.

He said also the federal government should insist that Iran agree to an unobstructed international presence in all investigative and judicial proceedings on the case.

As well, Mr. Day said, the federal government must apologize to the Kazemi family for what he said was a mishandling of the matter and step in to have the woman's remains returned to her son.

Last July, Canada withdrew its ambassador to Iran over Ottawa's frustration with the Iranian justice system's handling of the case. A new ambassador — Gordon Venner — was appointed in November.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:04 pm    Post subject: Ottawa to push Iran on Kazemi case: Pettigrew Reply with quote

Ottawa to push Iran on Kazemi case: Pettigrew

By TERRY WEBER

Source URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050331.w2kazemi03311/BNStory/International/

Thursday, March 31, 2005 Updated at 3:12 PM EST

Globe and Mail Update

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Thursday Ottawa will continue pressing Iran for justice in the wake of shocking new details about the condition of a Montreal photographer days before her death in a jail in that country.

“Iran is continuing to not respect the most fundamental human rights, and this must stop,” Mr. Pettigrew told reporters in Toronto.

“This new evidence only strengthens our position and confirms that this was not an accident. It does not change our position. Quite the contrary. The family wants answers. Canadians want answers, and we will be pursuing this until justice is done.”

Earlier Thursday, Sharham Azam, a former doctor with the Iranian Minister of Defence, detailed the injuries suffered by 54-year-old Zahra Kazemi just days before her death in June, 2003.

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He said catalogued countless injuries on the woman, who arrived at the hospital unconscious. He said the broken bones, bruising and marks suggested she had been beaten, tortured and raped, with the wounds suggested the assaults had taken place over a period of time.

“We believe the Iranian justice system has failed all across the line,” Mr. Pettigrew said.

The 54-year-old photojournalist died on July 10, 2003 in Tehran. An Iranian-born photographer who also had Canadian citizenship, she was beaten to death after being arrested for taking photos of protesters outside a Tehran prison.

The Canadian government was frustrated by efforts by the country's hard-line judiciary to censor news accounts of the trial of an intelligence officer accused of killing the Montreal woman.

Although the trial was initially open to then-Canadian ambassador Philip MacKinnon and other foreign observers, they were eventually not allowed in.

The Iranian judiciary later said the Montreal photographer died when she fell on the ground and hit her head, and a Tehran court acquitted the intelligence agent.

But, during Thursday's news conference, Shahram Azam, a former physician with the Iranian Department of Defence, confirmed details reported in The Globe and Mail, which offered evidence that Ms. Kazemi had been brutally tortured, beaten and raped before her death.

The new details in the case also prompted renewed calls from critics for immediate government action on the latest revelations, including the withdrawal of Canada's ambassador to Iran.

“The federal government must acknowledge that its strategy of soft diplomacy towards the brutish Iranian regime has been an utter failure,” Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day said.

Mr. Day urged Ottawa to pull Canada's ambassador to Iran, demand the return of Ms. Kazemi's body to her family and agree to a new trial, with an international presence involved in the proceedings.

Mr. Pettigrew said Ottawa has brought the issue before the United Nations general assembly and continues to press Iran for action at every opportunity. He also said Privy Council representatives are now meeting with lawyers for Ms. Kazemi's family to discuss the next step.

“We not excluding any particular option at all,” Mr. Pettigrew said.

In Ottawa, Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, also vowed to continue the fight for justice.

“It's hard to describe what I feel and I refuse to just go down on my emotions and cry,” Mr. Hachemi told reporters.

“But, I have the same attitude that I've always had which is to proceed aggressively in this case to get justice for my mother and to make an example of this case to make sure we have rights as Canadians.”

Mr. Hachemi also said he was grateful for the relative speed that the Canadian government acted on allowing Dr. Azam to come to Canada, but said he was frustrated with Ottawa's overall progress on the case.

“It's everybody's responsibility,” he said. “It's not a personal matter. It's a national matter, an international matter.”

In graphic detail, Dr. Azam outlined scores of injuries he observed on Ms. Kazemi, who had been brought to Tehran's Baghiattulah hospital early on the morning of June 27, 2003.

Dr. Azam's observations are the first from a medical eyewitness in the case.

“As a doctor I could see this was torture,” Dr. Azam, who fled Iran and has been granted landed immigrant status in Canada, told reporters.

He said Ms. Kazemi was battered from head to foot, with markings consistent with flogging on a number of areas of her body.

Her nose had been broken so badly that a nurse was unable to insert a tube when the unconscious woman was brought in. A vaginal exam carried out by a nurse — doctors in military hospitals in Iran are not allowed to carry out the procedure — showed massive bruising in the genital area, offering evidence of a brutal rape.

“It was the first time I saw a patient brought in from a prison,” Dr. Azam said. “It was so shocking for me.”

Last July, Canada withdrew its ambassador to Iran over Ottawa's frustration with the Iranian justice system's handling of the case. A new ambassador — Gordon Venner — was appointed in November.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rasker wrote:
Could this be the back-breaking, 'smoking gun' for this murdering, raping, gang of thugs? Could Ms. Kazemi's brutal fate bring Canada's government over to the side of regime change through sanctions, and with it, other left-leaning governments? Could hundreds of thousands soon be marching in Tehran's streets behind her portrait?


I see later in the thread that Pettigrew has stepped in already which tells me the heat is on. Gratefully, the Canadian government is responsive to such issues. This can serve as a watershed. I'm going to write the CBC and suggest they run Iran Undercover: The Hidden Revolution which makes reference to the case. This might have legs.

"left-leaning"

heh

that socialized medicine thing really gets to some folks Laughing

let's hope some real good comes of this. Sad

I wish someone would come up with phrase other than "regime change". Iraq has managed to screw that one up entirely. There must be some other way of describing sending the Mullah back to their mosques where they belong. Everything else is right where its needed. Unless you guys are planning some silly purple finger thingie.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, left-leaning in the sense of pacifistic, blue helmeted foreign policy, Bitster. Smile Perhaps de-mullification could work as well as regime change too. Perhaps work some epithet out that equates them with Nazism. Anyway, good to have you in the broad coalition, friend!

BTW, have they shown "Last Days In Iran", the special largely about Zahra that was shown on the Discovery Times channel recently? If not, thats another that they could show, with perhaps a panel discussion afterward to bring it up to date.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rasker wrote:
Well, left-leaning in the sense of pacifistic, blue helmeted foreign policy, Bitster. Smile Perhaps de-mullification could work as well as regime change too. Perhaps work some epithet out that equates them with Nazism. Anyway, good to have you in the broad coalition, friend!


Laughing Very Happy

de-mullified Iran. sounds good. IMO it certainly gets to the point.

blue helmets are something to be proud of, indeed. Lloyd Axworthy wore a white tilley hat in Rwanda while he was there observing the elections. That's what I'd like to see in Iran.

a real sheet of candidates and an honest election. and no fricken veto in the Council of Guardians. better yet, pension cheques. holy men are supposed to have more important things to do anyways.

let the Mullah cash in and leave peacefully. they own it all already anyways.

and thanks. I like standing on common ground.
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