Testimony of Dr. Shahram Azam: Zahra Kazemi was systematically tortured

I am Shahram Azam, born in 1965. I was born in Ilam, attended high school in Kermanshah, and went to university in Urmia. In 1992, I graduated as a physician from Urmia University of Medical Sciences.

I married very early, during my second year of university. Due to some financial pressure and other issues, I was officially employed as a doctor and officer in the newly established police force, which was a mixture of the gendarmerie, police, and committees. I officially received my rank and started working from the same year. I worked in Urmia and Ardabil in various cities until I was transferred to Tehran.

I had been in Tehran for about a year and a half or two years. I was in Tehran from 2000. The point is that when I went to Tehran, my rank was that of a major in the police force, and I was a doctor. The hospital where I served was located on Bahar Street, which is the number one police hospital. It’s a family hospital. When I was transferred to Tehran, I was under financial pressure because in Tehran, no one would come to a general practitioner who had only graduated three or four years ago, especially in a city with so many specialists and hospitals. We were allowed to go to different hospitals and do night shifts for extra work. One of the hospitals that paid well—because it was and still is one of the most advanced and well-equipped hospitals in Tehran—was Baghiatollah Hospital. I went to the police headquarters and said that I definitely wanted a shift in this hospital. About six months before the incident with the patient who later became famous and I realized who they were, I received a letter from the Armed Forces General Staff, introducing me to Baghiatollah Hospital as a doctor because of my experience. I had worked for seven or eight years before that in war emergency rooms in remote and war-torn areas such as Mahabad, Sardasht, and Piranshahr. Given that there is no specialty called emergency medicine in Iran, general practitioners or general surgeons would work. They knew I had enough expertise. I started working there, doing six or seven night shifts a month from 8 PM to morning. At that time, they paid relatively well.

Baghiatollah Hospital is mainly a military hospital, but it is heavily equipped and a lot of money is invested in it. For example, in 1999, it had the country's first MRI or the first spiral CT scan.

Because of these advanced equipment and facilities, although the hospital belongs to the IRGC, ordinary people go there. The emergency department was very chic, luxurious, and the hospital beds were very luxurious. For example, a simple angioplasty operation that cost three million tomans in an ordinary hospital at that time cost 21 million tomans in Baghiatollah Hospital, due to the luxurious rooms and equipment. Given all these, it had general admissions. Baghiatollah Hospital has an eleventh floor, which is the security floor. Usually, if leaders and officials had a problem, they would be hospitalized there, directly going to that floor without entering the emergency department. During the six months I worked there, many cases were directly admitted there without entering the general admissions department. I had no interaction with that floor as I worked in the emergency department.

The special doctors on that floor were from the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC. Interestingly, the only place in Iran I had seen card-operated elevators was there. Without a card, you couldn’t go to the eleventh floor, it had a special provost guard; even if you wanted to go up the stairs. Everything was specially controlled. We didn’t have any business there and never went there. But we knew it was a special area. Sometimes when the Ayatollahs were sick, they were hospitalized there. But I had heard that sometimes famous prisoners were also hospitalized there. That was the only thing I had heard about that place. But our regular patients were about 70-80% wealthy people and about 10-20% military personnel living nearby. The cases were like all other emergencies, including accidents, poisonings, suicides, heart attacks, and various other conditions. But because the area was uptown, meaning Vanak Square and that route, there were many hospitals around. Usually, those who came there were either very wealthy or military personnel; otherwise, they wouldn’t come there because it was very expensive for them.

One thing I must mention here is that it was unusual to bring prisoners transferred from jail to the emergency department. Usually, they would go directly to the security floor. That night, because the patient was in a coma, the on-duty resident judge had directly requested that they be transferred and admitted to the emergency department, like all other patients transferred from other locations. It was a hospital where patients were brought to the emergency room from various points. An ambulance had brought the patient, the nurse admitted them, and then the nurse called me. They gave me a paper stating that the patient had come from prison. This didn’t attract my attention. But the patient was completely unconscious. This was also in the medical history. But on the transfer sheet, it was written that there was gastrointestinal bleeding. The transfer sheet was signed by the Evin infirmary and the on-duty judge. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the on-duty judge. But what is exactly in my mind is that it was signed by the Evin infirmary and the on-duty judge, because the judge must approve the transfer from prison. I realized this later.

Exactly at midnight on July 4 [, 2003], it was 12 AM. The emergency room was relatively quiet compared to other days. The usual procedure is that before bringing the patient down from the ambulance, they give a sheet to the doctor to decide whether to admit the patient or not. If the doctor accepts, because sometimes the patient doesn’t belong there and needs to be sent elsewhere. They must go to another department. That’s why they first give the sheet to the doctor. I read "gastrointestinal bleeding" and said no problem. Probably a minor issue, maybe bad food, I will admit. We admitted the patient. They brought her in on a stretcher. When they brought the patient in, she was covered up to her neck. She was a woman, wearing a headscarf, but her face was battered and bruised. Her head and face were bruised. They took the patient to one of the examination cubicles. Given the sheet, a preconceived notion forms in the doctor’s mind about why the patient has come. I told the nurse to insert a tube from her nose to her stomach, and I would come to examine her to see the cause of the stomach bleeding.

A sheet was draped up to her chest, and her face was bloody. It was clearly visible. As an observer, the first thing that came to my mind was that she had been beaten. Her face looked like a truck had run over it, not just beaten. It was that severe. Her face was all bruised and swollen. The headscarf was wrapped tightly around her head. The scarf was completely closed, as if she had been prepared. The nurse called out, saying, "Doctor, the tube won’t go in." When I went, I saw that the nasal bone, which usually has an angular shape with two bones next to each other, was completely flat, meaning it was completely broken. When you touched it, it made a crunching sound, and it was clear that the bone was broken. We couldn’t insert the tube through the nose. We had to do it through the mouth. It’s a different tube, a different procedure. We inserted the tube through the mouth.

Even if it wasn’t written that she had stomach bleeding and we didn’t need to insert the tube, we could still see that her nose was broken. Just looking at her, it was obvious. Her face was completely bruised. The area around her right eye was completely bruised. There were bruises and scratches all over her face and head. It was like a boxer after a match, all swollen. After inserting the tube, not much came out. There wasn’t much blood. Even after washing, which we call "lavage," where we insert liquid and bring it back to see what’s there, there wasn’t any blood. There were clots, indicating she had swallowed blood from her nosebleed, or something similar. Considering the broken nose and other injuries I saw, I focused on her condition. With someone in this much pain, you would expect a reaction when you touch or manipulate her nose. But it was clear she was in a deep coma with no reactions. The first thing you do as an emergency doctor is look for the cause. You send for blood sugar and calcium tests. Then you look for hematoma. She had a hematoma at the back of her head, filled with blood. A large, soft bump at the back of her head like a huge blister. It’s the result of a direct blow to the skull. If there’s hemorrhage outside the skull, there’s likely hemorrhage inside the skull, too. The skull is like a closed ball made of bone, and when you have hemorrhage this obvious on one side, the first thought is, if the skull is broken, what is the condition inside of it? When the patient is unconscious and you know the patient is gone... You know the skull must be fractured.

The patient had come with two women, a man, and a driver. The women were the prison guards who brought her in, and a man and a driver were there with them, too. The man was wearing the uniform of the Prisons Organization. The women had veils, but their sleeves had ranks. The ranks are similar to those in the police force, but they are not actually related to each other. Since I was also in the military, I could tell. The women were likely around the Warrant Officer ranks, not high-ranking. The man was probably just there to do the carrying for them. He had carried the stretcher with the driver. I asked why she was in this condition. They said she had been injured in an accident and was a prisoner. When you’ve worked in a military environment for 8-10 years, you understand security, intelligence, and counter-intelligence matters. Usually, you don’t ask many questions or look for being questioned. I wasn’t an ordinary doctor. Although you need the information to do your job, you know you can’t ask too much. I had to base my judgement based solely on my own examinations, and that's exactly what I did. I showed one of the women the paper sheet that said stomach bleeding, but there was no bleeding. If I had known the patients true condition, I wouldn’t have admitted her. She should have been taken to Milad Hospital, which has a better equipped center for brain surgery. I should call the on-call neurosurgeon or resident. If I had known, I wouldn’t have admitted her. The only thing I was allowed to complain about was why the signing doctor made a wrong diagnosis and did not write any other diagnosis. The whole process took about an hour. My receptionist called me. This wasn’t the only patient there. I had to attend to other patients. While I was moving around, my receptionist called saying the phone was for me. Imagine having a critical patient you know is dying in a coma, and a few grumbling rich patients who couldn’t sleep, you’re stressed, and the phone is for you. I asked who it was. The receptionist said it was the prosecutor’s office. These are unusual things that change everything. This wasn’t a normal night shift. I picked up the phone. A man on the other end asked who I was. I said I was the emergency doctor. He asked for my details and rank. I gave my details and rank. I asked who he was. He said he was from the prosecutor’s office and asked about the condition of the patient transferred from Evin prison. He didn’t say the name. Just said from the prosecutor’s office. I told him the exact synopsis. He commanded to facilitate things as much as possible, and that they could do anything if needed. I said no need, I had called the on-call neurosurgeon, who was coming. On-call specialists are not residents. They go home, you call them, and they come. Residents stay in the hospital. I even called the on-call because I knew the patient likely needed surgery, and the skull needed to be opened. That’s why I called and spoke with them. The prosecutor’s office said alright and requested to stay updated. After realizing the stress of the situation, I called the fourth-year neurosurgery resident, Dr. Safi-Arian [IRGC Colonel], asking about the patient. He said to take the patient for a CT scan with me. I said the other doctor on shift was resting. He said to wake him up so that I can go with the patient. I went with the nurse. These are documented in the records.

Safi-Arian suggested this because the patient was critical and could have respiratory arrest at any moment. It wasn’t a security issue for Dr. Safi-Arian at that point. He didn’t know who the patient was. Even if he did, his concern was only the patient’s condition.

He said to go for a CT scan and stay with the patient. We went to the patient. Now, I have to give you some background, so, allow me to side-track a little bit. In Iran, doctors need to attend congresses and lectures to maintain their licenses. A month before this incident, there was a congress in Sanandaj, where we participated, shared a hotel room with some colleagues, attended the congress, and returned. While pushing the stretcher with the nurse, heading from the emergency to radiology and CT scan, I saw two doctors I had shared a hotel room with during the congress. We greeted each other. One of the doctors was taken aback when he saw my patient. I still didn't know the patient's name.

These two didn’t work there. One of their relatives had a stroke, so they came with the patient. You know, in Iran, if you have a doctor relative, they definitely have to come. They knew I worked there but didn’t know I was on shift. I told the nurse to go ahead, I would catch up. As I passed these colleagues, one couldn’t hold back. After spending four days together, he knew I was somewhat trustworthy despite being in military. He asked if I knew who the patient was. I said no, they brought her from prison. He said he was there when she was arrested. I asked where. He said during a protest outside Evin four or five days ago. A friend of him lived nearby and let him know that there was a protest. He could see her getting arrested, from a close range. That's why he remembered her face. She was shouting she wasn’t Iranian but Canadian, a Canadian citizen. He watched her being arrested and taken away. So, when he saw her in this state and shape, he was shocked. That’s when something clicked in my mind. Canada didn’t know she was arrested, yet. But this friend called the Canadian embassy anonymously and recorded the conversation. The embassy denied it, but he claimed he called that night, either on the 4th or 5th of July[, 2003]. Canada claimed they knew a week later, but either the operator failed, or they hid it. It’s politics.

These two, seeing her in this state in the hospital, called the embassy. Because she was not showing any reaction. I’ve said this many times. I had worked in war emergency rooms, seen many injuries, patients who needed to have their leg amputated, or who had their guts and liver out. It was my job to handle these situations. But this scene was different. A 54-55-year-old woman, severely battered, and crushed, impacts you deeply. If you know a car hit her, it’s different. But realizing she was beaten, you would imagine in slightly civilized countries, when an abused patient arrives, everyone has their antennas on high alert.

I had no feeling until then. To be very honest, I was still under the impression that it was an accident. What did I know? It's true that she came from prison, but in prison, inmates sometimes stab each other. I had no idea who she was. I had initially presumed that she was coming from a prison where she got beaten. We all knew that in general prisons, [it happens that] inmates fight and beat each other. This was one of those cases, beaten, head injuries. But the story totally changed. First, she wasn't a prisoner who had been detained for a long time. Four or five days ago, she was arrested. A live witness was telling me that he was there when she was arrested. A 54-55-year-old woman, the same age as my eldest sister. These are emotional matters that as humans we all relate to. It often happens that certain issues strike you. I mean you notice that she could be your sister, they are about the same age. Four or five days ago, outside the Evin prison... Alright, the patient was passing through the corridor, and I had to say goodbye to my colleagues and leave. They were in shock, and I was in shock, wondering what this was. A story of a protest in front of Evin, she was arrested, claiming she wasn't Iranian. Now, all of these thoughts are acting in my mind, knowing that she is dying, because the medical diagnosis was that she was dying. Based on my examination, the brain injury was severe. When I examined for traumatic brain injury by looking into the back of the eye, I saw that her condition was very critical. We went for a CT scan and found two skull fractures, one at the back, one on the right side, and a very large internal hemorrhage.

The hemorrhage was very extensive. It was caused by two separate blows, not just one. I am stating the following as technical, expert observations. Only in a car accident in which the car falls into a ravine and takes multiple blows, it is possible to have multiple fractures like this. The first blow fractures one place, the another blow fractures the second place. Because there are two fractures in two different directions, it couldn't be caused by a single blow.

Now, we continue the expert examination to understand what happened. After the patient returned, I stabilized her condition. Then I continued my examinations; this is the hospital procedure. You have to write a file for her, and document the medical history, and complete the procedures. First, you stabilize the patient, then move on to that task [examination and medical history]. I called Dr. Safi-Arian from there and explained the situation. He said, "Okay, I'll come and we'll review the images together. Keep her under observation." I asked if I should send her to the ICU. He said, "No, keep her under observation because there are no doctors upstairs, but you yourself are present in the emergency room. Let her stay under observation in the emergency room until I arrive so we could review her condition together."

I don’t know if anyone had contacted him or not. I assume that when the prosecutor's office contacted the emergency room, they also contacted the hospital director.

I didn’t tell Safi-Arian who she was. I wasn’t responsible for that at all, and emphasizing it might get me involved. So, we didn’t do anything about it. I returned to the observation ward and continued the examinations. All the instructions I gave for the patient, including the times, are documented. I don't recall the exact times right now, that is why I am not mentioning the times now. However, everything is recorded as we have copies of the file available. I had written that the nurse should insert a urinary catheter for her.

The nurse returned, restraining her tears, saying it was horrific and that she couldn't insert the catheter. She asked me to see for myself. Due to religious considerations, female staff usually handled genital tasks in the hospital. There was a large tear, as if something had been inserted into the genital area. Looking at it, you wouldn’t think this was done to a young girl but to a 54-55-year-old woman, which was unimaginable. When you consider the context and background, it was overwhelming. We fixed the catheter and inserted it through the bladder. It wouldn’t go through the urethra because the entire area was completely damaged. The bladder was about to burst, filled up to the navel. We had to insert a needle from above to drain the urine.

Then I immediately contacted the gynecology resident. I will mention their name because they are an IRGC Colonel as well: Dr. Masoumeh Khalili-Qareh Agaji. I called and explained the situation, asking her to come and see the patient. The gynecology department was usually present in the ward, and there was an obstetrics and gynecology department there as well. After half an hour, she arrived and wrote a report. The report on the genital injuries is signed by Dr. Khalili, so it’s not just my report or the nurse's report, but she documented everything herself. 

Around 3 or 4 AM, Dr. Safi-Arian came to the emergency room, and we reviewed the CT scans. He said we couldn’t open the skull because the patient wasn’t stable enough. If we attempted to open the skull, it might pose a greater risk. We decided to keep her under observation until the morning to see what would happen. We kept her under close watch. Nothing significant occurred until 7 AM, when I handed over the shift and left.

Seeing that scene, I immediately thought it wasn’t a rape but an object insertion. A woman of her age isn’t a virgin with intact genitalia. She’s had a sexual life, might have children. I didn’t know then, but later found out she had children. So, an expert judgment indicated her age didn’t fit a first-time rape. When examining the perineum, the entire area was torn, indicating an object insertion, not just intercourse. This isn’t typical in rape.

Due to my professional background, when I was in Mahabad, I served as a forensic doctor there for three years. This means I have expertise in forensic medicine, including evaluating cases of assault and rape according to the laws of the Islamic Republic. I have received training in forensic medicine, so I know the details, at least within the legal framework. 

I should mention one thing: during the general body examination, after starting the physical examination, I found her entire body battered. Toenails were ripped off, fingers were broken. I don't know, maybe a blow caused the nail to be ripped off, but a bleeding nail is half ripped off. There was one fingernail, and her toenails... her feet were in very bad shape. Very bad. This is what I'm seeing now during the overall examination. The sheet is no longer covering her, and I can see her feet are in very bad shape. The soles of her feet were damaged. Toenails were loose and dangling. It was a very disgusting sight. It was clearly a planned beating, not a random fight.

Based on my forensic background, I know that a blow causes bruising. The color of a bruise changes over time. You could clearly see the timeline, with five days between the first and last bruises. That means she had been beaten for five days. One bruise was from the first day, and there was a fresh bruise, maybe from three hours before coming to the emergency room. This was observed all over her body. There was an open bleeding wound, indicating a recent injury, likely from this afternoon. There were also very old wounds with colors changing to brown and yellow, indicating healing stages of bruising. All these various injuries showed a timeline of different stages.

In fact, when my shift ended at 7 AM, the patient was in the same condition as when she had been brought in, with the exception that we had inserted a urinary catheter, established an IV line, and examined her stomach. We had documented all these procedures, performed a CT scan of her head, and Dr. Khalili had conducted a vaginal examination and reported her findings. Dr. Safi-Arian had also provided his report. I handed over the emergency department and went to my own hospital. 

Around noon, at about 11:30 or 12, I couldn't resist anymore and called the emergency room at Baghiatollah Hospital. The morning shift had ended. It's a large hospital with many staff members. The receptionist didn't know me personally. I said I was the doctor on duty last night and had a patient there, asking about her condition. It was very busy, and the receptionist, quite agitated, said they were resuscitating the patient as she had gone into cardiac arrest. This was exactly what I had feared might happen at any moment. Cardiac arrest had occurred. The brain had stopped functioning. Resuscitation, documented in the records, had started around 11 AM. I called around 11:30-12 to inquire. At 2 PM, a list of doctors, who formally declare brain death, indicated that the patient was brain dead. Interestingly, despite this declaration, she was kept on life support for 13 days. She was transferred from the emergency room to the ICU and kept on the machine for 13 days.

That machine costs several million tomans per hour; it's a machine that provides breathing support and is usually used for patients who have a chance of recovery, those who have been resuscitated, put to sleep, paralyzed, or poisoned, and whose breathing isn't working. They connect them to the machine because there is hope that their breathing will return. But when, according to certain protocols, doctors have declared that the brain is flatlined, meaning complete brain death, they don't spend those several million tomans per hour to keep the machine running, pumping air into the lungs and the heart pumping, to keep the patient alive like a vegetable. They turn off the machine, and the patient suffocates and dies within a few minutes. Suffocates, meaning they're not truly alive; the patient enters a vegetative state because of brain death. But, well, they cut off the breathing support from the machine. This is what is done in Iran.

I wasn’t on duty that night. My next shift was nine days later. Nine days later, I was on duty at Baghiatollah Hospital. By coincidence, Dr. Safi-Arian was the on-call neurosurgeon again. Dr. Safi-Arian came in. Now exactly nine days had passed since the incident. We saw our patients and without drawing his attention, I asked him, "Doctor, do you remember that injured patient we admitted that day? How is she? What happened?" He said, "It's interesting, let's go upstairs and see her if you have time." I said, "Let's go. Where is she?" He said, "ICU." We got up and went to the ICU. On the way, he explained the scientific aspects to me, what had happened, and why we hadn’t operated, and that the patient was still flatlined [brain dead] but still on the machine. We went upstairs. In the emergency room, the sheet had been up to her neck, but here her hands were out because she had IV lines, and the sheet was up to her chest. She was wearing hospital clothes and was in the ICU. The bruises had completely faded. The color had changed over those eight or nine days, and she looked cleaner. Her head and face looked better, and at that moment I realized the reason she was on the machine was that the healing process continued in the vegetative state, as the body and its cells were still alive. Although it wasn’t real life, the body continued its process, making the corpse somewhat presentable.

If they could have continued longer, they would have. But they couldn't. The heart eventually gave out after 13 days, and she died. When the heart stopped, there was nothing more to do. They couldn’t use an artificial heart. The heart stopped on the 13th day after admission, with public outcry and her son Stephan raising his voice, everyone knew it was a special case by then. She is a foreigner.

I have stated this with complete expertise and I can definitively say that it was systematic torture, not even a regular fight. It was organized torture over a three to four-day period. The multiple blows are detailed in my reports, and I have brought the documents with me. The locations, sizes—due to my forensic background, I even wrote them in the original file with precise measurements. For example, a length of 5 centimeters, a width of 5 centimeters, on the left side, all of these details are accurately recorded.

When I went with this doctor to see the patient, I raised my curiosity in this context, not as a case, but by asking him, "I find it very interesting that the healing process has continued so well." I steered the conversation this way. Well, he is a neurosurgeon. I asked him as a neurosurgeon, "This patient is brain dead, but you see, her body has healed itself. What is the relationship between the nervous system and the healing system?" I presented it as a scientific question so as not to raise any suspicion. Then he explained to me that these processes are independent from the brain. When the skin is wounded, or the flesh is wounded, it is able to heal on its own. The tissue itself creates the healing tissue, and the brain has nothing to do with it. The only difference is that the patient didn't feel pain. Even though, there was a head and a brain inside it, it didn't feel the pain. That was the difference. It's like a plant with a wounded branch that heals after a week. The same thing happened to her.

I didn’t say anything about the genital injuries. Well, this is a taboo in Iran, and it still is, especially in a hospital like Baghiatollah. Usually, men never get involved in such matters. If you look, since the Cultural Revolution, no male gynecologist has graduated. Even the older male gynecologists are all being phased out. All gynecologists are women.

So, if that female nurse had done her job silently without raising any concerns, and wasn’t so deeply affected, I wouldn’t have understood anything [about the genital injury]. She came and told me exactly with the reaction I mentioned, as if she was in shock asking for help.

Seeing this is not just about believing it. It’s a very repulsive feeling because you are a part of it. You can never imagine those moments... A friend once asked me, "So what made you leave [Iran]? You could have stayed and lived your life." Well, I couldn’t! If I could have, I would have. If you get the chance, ask my wife. I was going completely mad because everything was falling apart. My identity, my world, my beliefs, everything was shattered; it shouldn’t have happened this way. I was part of this crime. How could I come and sit with my child at this table and laugh the next day? What would I say to him tomorrow? After all, I am part of this family. Why do I emphasize family so much? Because I am very committed to my wife. Not in the classic sense, but I am very close… she is my closest friend. How can I speak of intimacy, honesty, and humanity when I turned a blind eye to someone getting crushed and I was a part of it? A second after confirming [what they wanted me to], I would have become an accomplice to the crime. The moment I realized this, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Another thing that made me more and more determined that the case with this system was closed was the charade performed by the Article 90 Commission and Khatami’s fact-finding commission. I was interviewed by both commissions. Interestingly, Mr. Pezeshkian—it's very funny—first, he was my university mate; second, we know each other well; he was the Minister of Health during Khatami’s period; third, he interviewed me in two sessions of the fact-finding committee. Not only with me, but with everyone involved in Ms. Kazemi’s case at the hospital. But with complete dishonesty, they claim they don’t know me at all. Interestingly, I have photos with him in various places. We were together multiple times in Tabriz and at Urmia University. After we went, we realized nothing would come out of the commissions. Article 90 of the Constitution, the principle of handling complaints, gives Parliament the authority to bring complaints from any other government branch or any incident to the Parliament. At that time, the head of the commission was Mr. Ansari Rad. Mohsen Armin was a member of the National Security Commission. In that fact-finding commission, Pezeshkian was there, as well as Abtahi and another person.

Interestingly, they had the file as well. Regardless, they came back to us asking if we confirmed [their version of the facts]. I said I had written it there. And interestingly, a good person, during the 13 days that Ms. Kazemi was in the hospital, copied all the pages of the file. It wasn't me. They later handed it to me. A good person who felt involved in the hospital setting like I did, but did not have enough social power to come forward publicly. They couldn’t, but they did this good deed. They copied all the pages of the file, including the CT scans. After the forensic examination, when the body was taken to the forensic office before burial, they took photos of the body to present to the commission. They made certified copies of those photos, which clearly confirm the torture. It’s the forensic report.

These photos have never been published. I can say that I am the only one who has them outside the country. However, I don't have them with me now. They are in a safe. No one has access to it. There’s a legal process required to open that safe. The condition is that a formal legal court anywhere in the world must request it. This means that to ensure my position as a witness doesn’t change, I do not allow myself to put this on the table and say someone can take it. It’s stored somewhere. When a court declares, "Sir, please come and explain this piece to us," then it will be added to that file.