Seven Lawyers : "Your Honor Has Denied Our Request to Meet With Our Clients"
Honorable Judge of the Ahvaz Islamic Revolutionary Court, Branch Three
Peace Be Upon You. We, a number of attorneys representing the defendants in Case Number 294/8, would respectfully state the following:
We are well aware of Your Honor’s special diligence in carrying out the responsibility of the Honorable Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, in his fundamental policy of conducting fair trials and protecting the rights of defendants. One instance of a defendant’s rights is to choose and to have the support of counsel, which is one of the Constitution (Principle 35) and other relevant laws’ most brilliant principles. Some of us were informed of the trial date of May 23, 2006, at most two days or one day prior to the trial. However, although we made every effort to read the case file, which is about 800 pages, and because of the voluminous content of the file, it was not possible to study it and to take notes in such a short time. Even in a simple case, the minimum required time between notification of the trial date and the trial itself is five days (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 64). Some of us had submitted written requests to Your Honor, as well as having made oral pleas to have confidential meetings with our clients. Unfortunately, however, and in spite of the fact that this request, [and the aforementioned right], are among a defendant’s most obvious, as well as an attorney’s -- rights to which even Ayatollah Shahrudi himself has made reference and emphasized -- Your Honor has denied our request to meet with our clients. In his latest remarks on June 20, 2006, Ayatollah Shahrudi stated: “No one shall issue an order which deprives the defendant of his/her right to meet with his/her family or his/her lawyer. The defendant must know [and be made] well aware of his right to request a time for a confidential meeting with his/her attorney.”
We are certain that Your Honor will agree that we have not been able to read parts or all of the case file and that we have thus far been prevented from meeting with our clients. How could we possibly defend our clients who have been charged with armed uprising, one of the punishments for which is death? We, therefore, in order to conduct a fair trial, humbly request that Your Honor agree that the trial session be delayed for at least ten to fifteen days, so that we can read the file and have a confidential meeting with our clients, so that, Allah willing, we can fulfill our duties as legal counsel. Further, it must be noted that the trial session was conducted on an individual basis and without the presence of other defendants and their attorneys, which itself is against the law. In closing, we humbly state that, in the event that our lawful request is not granted, we will have no choice but to leave the courtroom in protest of this unprincipled and illegal manner of adjudication.
Signed: Feisal Sa’idi, Javad Tariri, Khalil Sa’idi, Hamid Mahmudi, Mansur Atasheneh, (first name illegible) Taherinasab, Abolhassan Heydari.
Cc: Ayatollah Shahrudi, Honorable Head of the Judiciary Branch