the family of murdered photographer Zahra Kazemi has been
barred from leaving the country, local media reported Wednesday.
AFP
The student news agency ISNA said Mohammad Seifzadeh, who has been working with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on the Kazemi case as well as defending writers arrested in a recent crackdown, was told he could not leave Iran when he tried to fly out on personal business.
Kazemi, who held both Canadian and Iranian nationality, was killed in custody in July 2003 after taking pictures outside a prison. Ebadi’s team accused the hardline judiciary of a cover-up when the sole defendant was acquitted earlier this year.
Seifzadeh has also been handling the cases of several journalists, webloggers and dissidents arrested in an ongoing judicial crackdown.
One of his clients, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a journalist and civil society activist, was released on bail Tuesday after a month of detention, reports said.
The Islamic republic’s judiciary has recently renewed its crackdown on reformist journalists, with the operation extending to contributors to Internet sites.
Last week the European Union lodged a formal protest with Iranian authorities over the arrest and harassment of journalists, staff of non-governmental organizations and members of religious minorities.
An EU statement listed six journalists or Internet writers arrested in a recent crackdown and who are still behind bars, seven who were detained and released, and four writers or activists who have received travel bans.
