The controversial murder trial of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi ended on Sunday after the judge announced that too many inconsistencies were found to convict Iranian information ministry official Muhammad Reza Ahmadi Aqdam.
The Iranian government has been widely criticized for not allowing foreign journalists into the courthouse. A state spokesman claimed that allowing international observers to witness such a trial would defy international law.
Canada announced the withdrawal of its ambassador to Iran last week, when the judiciary forbade Canadian observers from attending the trial.
The judge announced that he would find Kazemi’s killer, according to IRNA, Iran’s official news agency. Prosecutors, including Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, claimed that the judge had ignored incriminating evidence.
The ruling is reportedly drawing criticism not only from outsiders, but also from reformist members of Iran’s political sphere. The judiciary is considered a stronghold of the country’s hard-line Islamists.
Iran’s Criminal Court charged two employees of the ministry of information beat Kazemi following her arrest last year. The Iranian-Canadian woman had been photographing an Iranian prison at a time when many student protesters were being detained.
Kazemi died in a Tehran hospital of her wounds on July 11, 2003.