TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Canada's charge d'affaires to call for a swift investigation into the murder of a young Iranian in the Canadian capital of Ottawa last week, the state news agency reported Sunday.
Yazdan Ghiasvand, 16, was shot and killed in Ottawa's Chinatown on Dec. 6 and three men have been charged with his murder. Police do not believe it was gang related.
Relations between the two nations have suffered recently over Canadian complaints about the Iranian human rights situation.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's wife has lent her voice to an international appeal calling on the Iranian government to release a women who has been sentenced to death by stoning.
Meanwhile, an Iranian-born man who is a permanent resident of Canada has been sentenced to death in Tehran in a case his supporters say is rife with torture and human rights abuses.
In that case, Canada has expressed its concern for what it calls "the continued flagrant disregard" of rights by the Iranian authorities.
A Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman has said Canada and the international community are striving to hold Iran accountable for such human rights violations.
