IRAN: Iran's reformist government sided with Canadian officials and defence lawyers yesterday to accuse Iran's hardline judiciary of charging the wrong man with killing Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in custody last year.
"I emphasise that from the Iranian government's point of view, the person who is being tried is innocent. But the final decision rests with the judge," government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told a news conference.
The case, in which a verdict is expected next week, has soured Iran's relations with Canada and exposed rifts between President Mohammad Khatami's government and the judiciary.
The judge abruptly concluded hearing evidence on Sunday after just three court sessions in a trial that has exposed Iran's judicial processes to intense international scrutiny.
Intelligence Ministry agent Mohammad Reza Aqdam, facing up to three years in prison, denies the "semi-intentional murder" of the 54-year-old Iranian-born photographer, who was arrested after she took photographs of Tehran's Evin prison.
The Kazemi family lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi, accused the court on Sunday of ignoring evidence that pointed to a judiciary official having delivered the fatal blow.
The Canadian Foreign Minister, Mr Bill Graham, called the trial a "flagrant denial of justice" and announced the withdrawal of Ottawa's ambassador.
Suspicions about the judiciary's role in Ms Kazemi's death stem from its initial announcement that she had died naturally of a stroke suffered during 77 hours of interrogations inside Evin.
Mr Khatami was not convinced and ordered a government inquiry which revealed Ms Kazemi had received a blow to the head while in detention that split her skull and caused a brain haemorrhage.
Ms Kazemi's mother told the court that she had seen evidence of torture on the corpse, including a broken nose and fingers. She also said judiciary officials had pressured her to agree to bury her daughter in her birthplace in southern Iran, rather than send the body back to Canada for a further autopsy.
But Mr Ramazanzadeh dismissed Ottawa's complaints that it had not been allowed to send observers to the trial: "We do not allow any foreign country to intervene in this case."