Iranian doctor who examined Kazemi says he struck no immigration deal

OTTAWA (CP) - The Iranian doctor who revealed graphic details about the torture of Zahra Kazemi says he struck no immigration deal with Ottawa in exchange for going public.
Dr. Shahram Azam thanked Canada on Thursday for fast-tracking his refugee claim. But he says it was his duty as a doctor to publicize evidence of horrific rape and torture - even if his relatives in Iran may suffer consequences. Asked if Ottawa fast-tracked his case in exchange for his chilling medical account, Azam said through a translator: "No, there was no talk of that."

Kazemi, an Iranian-born photojournalist with Canadian citizenship, died July 10, 2003. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage linked to a vicious head blow and was in a coma for several days.
The Montreal resident had been arrested 17 days earlier while photographing student-led protests outside a Tehran prison.

No one has been convicted in connection with her death. Critics and Kazemi's family have blamed Ottawa for not doing enough to hold Iran accountable.

Azam says he was on duty in the emergency room of Tehran's Baghiatollah hospital when the dying woman was brought in from prison on a stretcher.

She had been in custody for four days.

Azam said it was his duty to report what he saw - something he could not do under his home country's Islamic Republic government.

"I don't think this is possible to do in a country like Iran."

Azam was shaken by what he saw, he told a news conference Thursday on Parliament Hill.
"I am a physician who swore to save people's lives.

"When I saw with my own eyes that somebody has been tortured, without any doubt, it affected my mental (state)."

The former army doctor, wounded during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, was allowed last August to leave Iran for related medical treatment in Finland. He later made his way to Sweden where he applied for political asylum in Canada.

Foreign Affairs officials first interviewed him there in November.

Azam backed up his claims with documentation that he is a physician who was on duty the night Kazemi was brought to the hospital, he said.

Azam said he saved his notes from Kazemi's clinical assessment and gave them to Canadian officials.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said it's not up to Ottawa to confirm the doctor's story.

"We have to take it for what it is," said Sebastien Theberge.

"There's no corroboration and we're not in the business of corroboration. That's the business of the courts."

Ottawa does what it can to fast-track refugee applications for those in danger, said Stephen Heckbert, spokesman for Immigration Minister Joe Volpe.

"When people are in need of protection, they're generally in need of protection now. We do what we can to expedite that process."

Heckbert would not discuss specifics of Azam's case, but said refugee claims typically take from three months to two years. The doctor arrived in Vancouver less than five months after first meeting federal officials. He now lives in Montreal with his wife and 12-year-old daughter but declined to discuss future plans out of fear for his safety.

He's also worried about relatives in Iran who might be punished because he spoke out.
"It's possible," he said when asked if they could face repercussions. "It depends on (the Iranian government's) reaction."