The knives may be out for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a fight gone public with a politician maneuvering to succeed him. It involves secret videos, corruption allegations, the arrest, imprisonment and reported sudden release of one of the President's key allies. You want to bet it also involves the real power broker, the country's top cleric. Today, we are looking at the backroom struggle that could ensnare Iran and the rest of the world.

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BBC's Persian Correspondent, Bahman Kalbasi

Almost as shocking as the death of Zahra Kazemi is the botched Iranian investigation into it. Nearly ten years ago, Kazemi, a photojournalist and Canadian citizen was arrested after she took pictures outside Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

We may never know exactly what happened to her following the arrest. The authorities said she had a stroke, or fell. The doctor who examined her in prison shortly before she died says she showed obvious signs of prolonged torture -- including a skull fracture.

Her son Stephan Kazemi spoke with the CBC about his mother just over two years ago. We aired a clip.

No one was ever convicted in connection with Kazemi's death. The man Canada believes is ultimately responsible is Saeed Mortazavi, a former Prosecutor General of Iran. Canada believes he oversaw Ms. Kazemi's imprisonment and has longed to bring him to justice.

Yesterday, Mr. Mortazavi was exactly where Zahra Kazemi was before she died -- inside Evin prison. Iran provided no reason why but today he has been released.

With more on the intrigue, we were joined by Bahman Kalbasi, BBC's Persian Correspondent. We reached him in New York.

Panel: Geneive Abdo of the Middle East Institute / Reza Marashi of the National Iranian American Council

The detention of Saeed Mortazavi signals a broader conflict in Iranian politics -- the one between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

To help navigate through some of the complexity, we were joined by two guests. Geneive Abdo is a fellow with The Stimson Center in Washington DC. She joined us from Cairo. And Reza Marashi is the research director at the National Iranian American Council. He was in Washington DC.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal and Naheed Mustafa.

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