Lies, lies, lies -- but hardly surprising.

Last year, an Iranian parliamentary commission concluded that the Tehran prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, and other members of the judiciary were directly involved in Zahra Kazemi's death from a blow to the head, having subjected her to violent interrogation at Evin prison.

Now, after clearing intelligence agent and scapegoat defendant Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi in a farcical trial, Iran's hardline judiciary is showing new levels of contempt for justice by claiming Kazemi's death in custody may have been an accident.

Zahra Kazemi continues to be a pawn in the power struggle between Iran's hardliners and reformists.