Iran court orders Kazemi case re-opened - lawyers

Reuters:

An Iranian appeals court has ordered the case concerning the 2003 death in custody of a Canadian journalist re-opened, upholding Ottawa's opinion that the original trial was flawed, lawyers said on Wednesday. READ MORE

The investigation and subsequent trial about Zahra Kazemi's death has significantly soured ties between Iran and Canada, which accuses Iran's judiciary of trying to cover up what happened after she was arrested for taking pictures of a prison.

Iranian-born Kazemi died in a military hospital of a brain hemorrhage after recieving a blow to the head inside Tehran's Evin prison that fractured her skull.

The appeals court upheld the original court's decision to acquit intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi of Kazemi's manslaughter.

But it also sent the case back for further investigation, "due to the possibility that some other people were involved" in Kazemi's death, Aghdam Ahmadi's lawyer Qasem Shabani told Reuters.

The Canadian government and lawyers for the Kazemi family have long contended that evidence pointing to other suspects was ignored by Iran's judiciary and that Aghdam Ahmadi was an innocent scapegoat.

Iran has rejected Ottawa's calls for Kazemi's body to be returned Canada for an autopsy. Judiciary officials have said her death was an accident, possibly caused by her fainting and banging her head against the wall or floor as she fell.

Kazemi family lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah hailed the appeals court ruling, but regretted that the case was not sent to a criminal court.

"We view the ruling of the appeals court as a victory for us, but we still believe it was an intentional murder and the case should be sent to a criminal court," he told Reuters by telephone.