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IRAN SAYS KAZEMI APPEAL VERDICT REACHED
By AFP
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Iran's hardline judiciary said on Monday that it has reached a verdict
in the case of murdered Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi but
that the result of the appeal was still being typed out.

"The case has been closed and the verdict is being typed," justice
minister Jamal Karimi-Rad told reporters, adding that it would be made
public "at the right time".

Last July a Tehran court acquitted an intelligence agent accused of
giving the journalist a mortal blow to the head while she was in
custody two years ago.

Since then the case has been in an appeals process and Kazemi
family lawyers - led by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi - have set their sights
on bringing to justice a judiciary official that they say is the real
killer.

Kazemi family lawyers had also backed the agent's plea of
innocence, but during the appeal hearings they complained that their efforts to
look into other suspects had been blocked.

One of the family lawyers, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, recently predicted
that the agent would be cleared but the case also totally closed.

Kazemi, who was 54, died in custody in Tehran in July 2003 after
being arrested for photographing a demonstration outside a Tehran prison.
Family lawyers have accused the judiciary of a cover-up, a charge
backed by Ottawa.

Iran's government has acknowledged that Kazemi was violently beaten
in prison, although the judiciary has also said that she might have
died after a fall.

Ebadi has vowed to "follow this case until my dying day" and "use
all means, domestic and international".

But Iranian authorities have been keen to see the back of an
embarrassing affair that has also badly damaged relations with Canada.

In June the judiciary again rejected Canada's demand for Kazemi's
body - which was hastily buried inside Iran after her death - to be dug
up and handed over for a new autopsy.

Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, says that Canada
has no business looking into the affair.