Iranian agent charged with journalist's murder

An Iranian intelligence agent has been charged with the murder of a journalist who had duel Canadian-Iranian nationality.

Veteran Iranian judge Javad Esmaeili, who has been heading an independent inquiry into the death of Zahra Kazemi, charged the agent with “semi-premeditated murder”, the Tehran prosecutor’s office said.

The agent was one of two Intelligence Ministry officials charged earlier over Kazemi’s death. But the prosecutor’s office rejected the charges and called for further investigations.

The statement said the judge concluded that no government body was behind the crime.

Initially, the hard-line Tehran prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, was said Kazemi had died of a stroke.

But a presidential-appointed committee discredited this version and found that she had died of head injuries sustained while in custody.

Canada has complained to Iran over the earlier handling of Kazemi’s case, threatened sanctions and withdrew its ambassador after the photojournalist’s body was buried in her birthplace, the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, against the wishes of Canadian authorities and her son, who lives in Montreal.

Kazemi, 54, died three weeks after being detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests.

After 77 hours of interrogation, she had been rushed to a hospital’s intensive care unit, where she died 14 days later.