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. |