Omid Memarian
o.memarian@roozonline.com
Nemat Ahmadi is a known personality in Iran’s political circles. He has been the defense attorney for many political cases. In an exclusive interview with Rooz he says that many detentions and imprisonments are unlawful in the Islamic Republic of Iran simply because the bails that are set by the judges are extremely disproportionate and high, making it impossible for the victims to meet them and thus keeping them behind bars. Here are the excerpts.
Rooz (R): It appears that judges have been posting disproportional bails for detainees with political charges in recent years. What are the issues that must be considered when determining the amount of bail for a prisoner?
Nemat Ahmadi (NA): In law, there is a specific meaning to bail which is a guarantee that a detainee will appear in court on the day of trail or hearing. Nine points are mentioned in the code of civil procedure in this regard. So the amount is not something that a judge can decide on his own. Bail has to be proportionate and the law has determined what that means. Our judges however do not observe these rules. The result is that because the amount of bail cannot be met by the detainees, the situation leads to the continuation of the detention of a person, which constitutes an unlawful detention. This is something that is used against political prisoners in Iran.
R: While the judiciary in the Islamic Republic has been stating that its policy is to reduce the number of prisoners, we see that in some cases such as that of Hosseinkhah, a woman activist, the amount of bail does not meet the standards that you mention .. .
NA: Yes, speaking in the capacity of leading the judiciary, Mr Shahrudi has spoken about reducing the number of prisoners, while this must take place before the trial takes place. I other words, they must do something so that we do not have 800,000 people entering the prison. I think if some form of supervision takes place over the judges, most of these arrests are merely minor violations, and according to the Islamic penal code must result in judicial terminations, whereas arrests have been issued for them.
