Justice for Zahra Kazemi

To: General Secretary of the United Nations
CC: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch
International Federation of Journalists


We, the undersigned, call on you to conduct a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances of Zahra Kazemi’s death in custody by sending a delegation to Iran.

Ms. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian journalist, died in a hospital in Tehran on July 11th, 2003 after she was detained by the state security agents on June 23, 2003. State officials has issued a report in which the cause of her death was determined to be “fractured skull, brain hemorrhage as a result of her being struck with a blunt object or alternatively by bumping her head against an object”. However, in an interview with an Iranian Daily, Yaas Now, her mother stated that she had witnessed signs of injuries to her daughter’s thighs, her arms and her head. Her testimony together with the fact that the state officials in Iran have refused to return Ms. Kazemi’s body to her family in Canada are indicative of their efforts to cover up the brutal treatment she received before her death.
The 1998 horrendous murder of five Iranian dissidents which came to be known as the “Serial Killings” was an example of such crimes. In a manner similar to Ms. Kazemi’s case, the authorities of Iranian Regime ordered an inquiry into those killings. However, the final outcome of that inquiry was the imprisonment of the lawyer representing the victims’ families next to a state's ban on the media coverage of those killings in the country. Regretfully, neither the 1998 murders, nor the recent killing of Zahra Kazemi marks the end of such crimes.
Abduction, imprisonment, torture and ultimately murder of writers, journalists and political activist have become the main tools in implementation of the repressive policies of the Islamic state in Iran. We demand an end to imprisonment, torture and killings of dissidents in Iran. We demand the release of all prisoners of conscience in Iran.