Tehran demands justice for Iranian shot by B.C. police

Iran accused Canadian police on Thursday of killing an Iranian in the Vancouver area and said those responsible should be punished, a demand that echoes Canadian protests over the treatment of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who died in Iranian custody.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted by the official Iranian news agency saying that Canadian police killed an Iranian national and injured another, and imposed a news blackout on the "criminal act."

He was referring to the death of Keyvan Tabesh, 18, of Burnaby, B.C., who was shot by a police officer in Port Moody, about 25 kilometres east of Vancouver, on July 14.

News reports at the time quoted Port Moody police saying that Mr. Tabesh was wielding a machete and running at a police officer when he was shot. Mr. Tabesh was reported to have come to Canada two years ago.

Mr. Asefi said Canadian police "attacked three Iranian nationals in Vancouver," killing Mr. Tabesh and injuring another Iranian. Mr. Asefi pointed to "ambiguity" in the case and alleged that Canada has imposed a news blackout on it.

You can read the whole story here ... more here

The police department here investigates itself. This has been an ongoing complaint here for the last little while.

Iran....Demands Justice....From CANADA?


*rolls around laughing*

Maybe we should ask them to refrain from beheading people in public...for stealing bread.

well lets see,

if Tehran keeps demanding maybe Canada will export all its Iraniians back to Iran. everybody knows there are enough there. give Canada back to the Canadians

tut tut

I also forgot to mention that I work with an Iranian woman who was telling us what happened to that 18 yr old that day. She hadn't heard the story on the news, she was told the story from friends of her who's cousins live on the block where it happened. Her story is very different from the news media report.

According to her, the boy was cornered by 3 policemen (not 1) and was no longer armed when one of the policemen started shooting him. Some of them witnessed this from the window of their homes. Now the boys family are asking them to go to court and testify but they are afraid to. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.