MONTREAL, July 18 (AFP) - Canada will recall its ambassador to Iran, after Tehran abruptly halted the trial of the accused killer of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, Ottawa announced Sunday.
Canada's Foreign Minister Bill Graham said that Ottawa, which had announced during the week that it would recall Ambassador Philip MacKinnon, then reversed its decision, decided Sunday to pull the diplomat in protest over Tehran's handling of the murder trial of 42-year-old intelligence agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi.
"Ambassador MacKinnon will be returning to Canada immediately," Graham said, criticizing Tehran's decision to halt the trial.
"I am disappointed, but not surprised, by this flagrant denial of justice," he declared through a spokesman, calling the suspension of the trial "unacceptable."
"There can be no justice behind closed doors. We will continue to monitor this case closely and I will be consulting with ambassador MacKinnon on our next steps," he said.
Kazemi was detained while photographing a prison riot in Tehran in July 2003 and died at an Iranian hospital shortly after her arrest.
Officials initially insisted that Kazemi had died of a stroke, but later conceded that she had lapsed into a coma after being struck with a blunt object during interrogation.
Her body was then hastily buried in southern Iran by her mother, who later complained of being pressured into not sending the body back to Canada.
Ahmadi, whom the judiciary has charged with "semi-intentional murder," pleaded not guilty during a preliminary hearing last October.