Dutch Foreign Minster, Uri Rosenthal assured his parliament today that he will pursue every channel to investigate allegations of torture in the case of Zahra Bahrami.
Rosenthal added that he will do all he can to have Bahrami’s remains returned to her family in the Netherlands.
The Dutch government has already frozen all contact with the Islamic Republic after the 45-year-old Iranian-Dutch citizen was hanged for drug charges, after initially being arrested for security reasons.
Several opposition websites have alleged that Bahrami’s official execution on Janury 29 was rushed because she had actually died during torture, sometime after the last visit from her daughter on January 27.
Bahrami’s daughter says she did not see any evidence of torture during that last visit.
Rosenthal criticized the lack of transparency in the legal proceedings against Bahrami. He said Dutch officials were never informed of Bahrami’s trials, and their embassy representatives and lawyers were barred from the legal proceedings.
In response to Western outrage over Bahrami’s execution, an Iranian ambassador to the Hague said Europeans should be thankful that Iran is helping to fight their drug problem.
