So far, no charges have been filed against the Canadian policeman who killed Tabesh.
The Vancouver Police spokesman said an off-duty policeman had pursued three Iranians driving in a car and stopped them in a dead-end alley and that two of the passengers got out and ran toward his car, at which point the policeman felt he was in danger, and fired five shots in their direction, killing Tabesh and injuring the other.
The Vancouver Police spokesman added that the policeman was not in uniform at the time and his car was unmarked, meaning that it was not clearly identified as a police car.
One day before the Vancouver Police spokesman’s announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi had announced that the Iranian government was officially protesting to the Canadian government over the fact that the Canadian police had not provided sufficient information about the incident.
The Iranian foreign minister called the Canadian foreign secretary and demanded that the person responsible for the death of the Iranian citizen be identified, charged with murder, and punished. Kharrazi told the Canadian foreign secretary that a serious response would prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.
Five days after the incident, the Canadian daily the Toronto Globe and Mail spoke with Tabesh’s parents.
Nasser Tabesh, Kayvan’s father, a physician who immigrated to Canada with his wife and three children after retiring from the Army, said that they had lived peacefully in Iran and in Canada but never thought that the Canadian police would kill their son one day.
Tabesh’s parents said that the Canadian police only informed them of the death of their son seventeen hours after the incident.
JH/HG
End
MNA