But the more conservative judiciary later rejected the presidential finding and claimed that Kazemi died in custody from an accidental fall after her blood pressure dropped during a hunger strike, a sharp shift in position on a case that has strained relations between Iran and Canada.
Before the judiciary found that she died from an accidental fall, prosecutors charged a secret agent who interrogated Kazemi while she was in custody with her death. In 2004, a court acquitted the secret agent, and in 2005, an appeals court upheld that ruling.
Lawyers representing Kazemi's relatives have repeatedly said they did not believe the secret agent was guilty and have accused prison official Mohammad Bakhshi of inflicting the fatal blow to Kazemi and the judiciary of illegally detaining her. The judiciary cleared Bakhshi of any wrongdoing.
Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, the chief lawyer for the victim's mother, had also rejected the court's rulings as flawed and threatened to take the matter to international organizations if other legal stages failed to carry out justice.
Canada recalled its ambassador in 2003 to protest how Iran was dealing with the case and has blamed Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi for Kazemi's death.
Iranian reformists accused Mortazavi of trying to stage a cover-up because he was the one who reported that Kazemi died of a stroke.
RSS