Canada has frozen its bilateral ties with Iran, in protest against the regimes refusal to investigate the death of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian citizen. Zahra Kazemi was arrested while taking photographs of mourning mothers outside the notorious Evin prison, where most of the Iranian dissidents are held. Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death during the interrogations in July 2003.
The Canadian foreign minister Pirre Pettigrew said: “Effective immediately...we will limit our encounters with Iranian officials to the Kazemi case, Iran’s human rights record and Iran’s nuclear non-proliferation performance“.
He also said: “This state of relations will persist until Iran has taken steps to launch a credible and independent investigation and judicial process into the Kazemi case“.
Canada has already withdrawn its ambassador from Iran because of the regimes refusal to investigate Zahra Kazemis death. But the Canadian ambassador will this time remain in Iran for the time being.
The Iranian Governments official explanation is that Kazemi died after fainting and hitting her head on the floor. A former Iranian interrogator, now in exile, has said that Kazemi was beaten to death after defending herself when the interrogators tried to rape her.
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