 Iran has dismissed as "false" claims of an Iranian asylum seeker that Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured.
| "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope..." |
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said late on Friday that such unfounded claims are the product of adverse publicity by the Canadian press.
| "It would have worked, except for that pesky press!" |
Asefi stressed that officials of the hospital, where the man claimed working, have denied such a person was on their medical team.
He said the man's bogus claims were made for personal gain, adding there is a history of such people using the same tactic, but all their malicious intentions were soon brought to light. Sources say an Iranian asylum seeker in Ottawa, introducing himself a physician, claimed without presenting any proof, that Ms. Kazemi was tortured to death.
| "Tortured to death? In Iran? Pshaw! Prob'ly choked on her tea. Happens all the time..." |
Kazemi, a 54-year-old Iranian photojournalist, was arrested on June 23, 2003 on charges of violating security regulations while taking photographs of the prohibited zones in Tehran. She died of a brain complication at hospital a few days after her detention. |