Kazemi's son not surprised by suspect's acquittal

CTV.ca News Staff
The son of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi says he's not surprised an Iranian court acquitted the man charged with his mother's murder.
"The only justice we have come to expect from Iran is injustice," he told Broadcast News.
Hachemi says he's hoping Ottawa and the International Court of Justice in The Hague will review the case.
He adds that he's expecting to meet Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew to "be assured of the other effective measures (Canada) is intending to take."
The intelligence agent implicated in Kazemi's death, Mohammad Reza Aqdam pleaded not guilty during the trial.
But Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace laureate representing Kazemi's mother, said all along that the accused agent wasn't responsible.
They say the real killer was a senior prison official who had already been cleared of any wrongdoing by Iran's judiciary.
Ebadi says she will not rest until Kazemi's murderer is identified. "I will pursue this case until my last breath," she said.
She said the court wasn't willing to hear the witnesses she had called in the case.
"I'm sorry, because if they had been heeded those who committed this crime...would have been identified," Ebadi said.
Meanwhile, Iran's judiciary has ordered that "blood money" be paid to Kazemi's family from the state treasury.
The funds are normally paid to the victim's family by those convicted of their murder. Since no guilty party has been identified, the money is paid by the state.
The move would lead to an end to the case. But Ebadi is trying to prevent that from happening. She's hoping the case will be re-opened in a higher court and has threatened to take it to an international court if Iran blocks her efforts.