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Murder trial provokes fresh reformist-conservative spat in Iran
The trial of an Iranian intelligence agent accused of killing an Iranian-Canadian press photographer has brought the Islamic republic's political tussle back to the fore, with the affair prompting renewed finger-pointing between the rival conservative and reformist camps. On Wednesday, embattled reformist President Mohammad Khatami stepped into the dispute by accusing the judiciary, a bastion of Iran's religious right, of not having conducted an impartial probe into the death-in-custody of the 54-year-old dual national. "Why were all the people who were implicated in this affair... not interrogated?" Khatami told reporters after a cabinet meeting, the day after the judiciary opened the trial of her alleged killer. "We are asking for nothing else than impartiality, and we think that there should be an impartial trial that is not influenced by the very same people who rank among those who have been accused in the affair."Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-10-09 |
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