Iran's Nobel winner vows to find journalist killer

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TEHRAN- Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi vowed on Sunday not to rest until the killer of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi was identified, after Iran's judiciary acquitted the sole defendant in the case.
"I will pursue this case until my last breath," said human rights lawyer Ebadi, who is representing the family of Kazemi, who lived in Canada and died on an assignment in Iran.
Kazemi's death in detention last July after being arrested for taking photographs of Tehran's Evin prison has severely strained Iran's ties with Canada -- which withdrew its ambassador this month -- and thrown an international spotlight on human rights abuses and judicial process in Iran.
Iran's reform-minded government, human rights groups and lawyers for the Kazemi family had long said the intelligence agent charged with killing her was a scapegoat and accused the powerful and conservative judiciary of covering up evidence pointing to the involvement of judiciary officials in her death.
"The Iranian government from the beginning believed the man on trial was innocent and the court came to the same conclusion," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Ebadi, speaking to reporters outside the Tehran court which on Saturday cleared Intelligence Ministry agent Mohammad Reza Aqdam of Kazemi's killing, said key testimony had been ignored.
"We introduced some witnesses and called on the court to summon them and to listen to their comments but none of them were taken into consideration," she said.
"I'm sorry, because if they had been heeded those who committed this crime ... would have been identified."
Judiciary moves to wrap case up
Iran's judiciary, which abruptly brought Aqdam's trial to an end last Sunday after just three court hearings, appeared to be moving quickly to wrap up the case.
Announcing its decision to acquit Aqdam of "semi-intentional murder" due to lack of evidence, it also said "blood money" would be paid to Kazemi's family from the state treasury.
Blood money compensation is normally paid to the victim's family by those convicted of their murder. When no guilty person is identified the money is paid by the state.
But Ebadi said she would lodge an appeal for the case to re-opened at a higher court. She has threatened to take the case to an international court if her efforts are blocked Iran.
Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders also called for a fresh trial.
"This trial has been a masquerade," said Robert Menard, a spokesman for the group. "What cannot happen is that the trial process ends following this acquittal."
Kazemi, 54, underwent three days of interrogations inside Evin prison before being sent to a military hospital where she slipped into a coma and died.
Iran's judiciary initially announced she had died naturally of a stroke. But a subsequent government report showed Kazemi had received a blow to the head while in detention that split her skull and caused a brain hemorrhage.
In tearful testimony to the court, Kazemi's mother said her daughter's fingers, nose and toes were broken and there were burn marks on her chest.
She said Iranian officials forced her to agree to bury the body in Iran, instead of sending it to Canada where authorities wanted to carry out a further autopsy.