By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Shirin Ebadi walked out of court Sunday to protest
proceedings in the murder of an Iranian-Canadian
photojournalist and threatened to take the case to
international organizations.
Iran's hard-line judiciary on Sunday
concluded the trial of a secret agent charged with killing
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. Canada's ambassador was barred
from Sunday's court session, further straining
Iranian-Canadian relations.
Ebadi, leading a four-member legal team
representing the mother of the slain woman, is on her first
high-profile case since winning the Noble Peace Prize last
year.
Her next step in the case was not clear.
Kazemi, a Canadian freelance journalist of
Iranian origin, died July 10, 2003, while in detention for
taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led
protests against the ruling establishment.
Iranian authorities initially said Kazemi
died of a stroke, but a presidential committee later found
that she died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage from a
blow to the head.
The court had only met three times in the
trial of agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, a counterespionage
expert and the only person implicated by the judiciary in the
killing. He pleaded innocent Saturday.
No date was set for the verdict, but Ebadi
protested the proceedings Sunday and refused to sign the
indictment. She said the court needed to summon several top
officials, including hard-line Tehran prosecutor Saeed
Mortazavi, to explain Kazemi's murder.
``Whatever the verdict, it will be
incorrect because the indictment was flawed ... we left the
court in protest because our demands have been ignored,''
Ebadi said.
The Canadian government has blamed
Mortazavi for the death. Mortazavi's office has denied the
allegations.
The bill of indictment, which has cleared
judiciary official Mohammad Bakhshi of any wrongdoing and
implicated Ahmadi in the murder, was prepared by the Tehran
Prosecutor's Office.
Ahmadi's lawyer, Qasem Shabani, said he
expected his client to be acquitted.
``There is no reason for him to be
convicted,'' Shabani told reporters outside the courthouse
Sunday.
On Saturday, Ebadi's team accused Bakhshi
of inflicting the fatal blow to Kazemi, and accused the
hard-line judiciary of illegally detaining her.
Bakhshi has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
But under Iranian law, lawyers can accuse someone already
cleared of a crime.
Mohammad Seifzadeh, who is on Ebadi's team,
accused the court of a coverup.
``It's clear that the person who inflicted
the blow is free and the person who hasn't done so is standing
trial and will later be acquitted and the whole crime will be
covered up,'' Seifzadeh told reporters after the trial ended.
Iranian-Canadian relations, strained by the
slaying, further deteriorated after Iran blocked Canadian
observers from attending the trial. When the Canadian
ambassador was about to be recalled for the second time over
the issue, Iran agreed to allow diplomats to attend on
Saturday.
However, Canadian and European diplomats
and the media were denied access on Sunday.
Clearly outraged, Canadian Ambassador
Philip Mackinnon and other diplomats left the building after
waiting for nearly two hours outside the court.
Iranian officials defended the court's
decision to keep diplomats and the media out.
``Zahra Kazemi was Iranian, and Canada's
insistence that that lady was Canadian does not change
anything,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
He said the judge must decide whether to allow media access
and that the government continues to oppose allowing a
Canadian observer to attend the trial.
Asefi insisted that ties with Canada would
not be harmed by the case. ``Zahra Kazemi was an Iranian
citizen and this has nothing to do with Canada,'' he said.
