After 405 days of being held in temporary detention, Ali Younesi meets his lawyer
24-May-2021
Category: Uncategorized
23-May-2021
Newsgroup: Prisoners –
Breathing in Confinement: On Thursday, May 20, 2021, after 405 days of being held in temporary detention in Evin Security Ward 209, Ali Younesi met his lawyer, Mr. Mostafa Nili.
Ali Younesi’s brother, confirming the news on his personal Twitter page, announced that the Ministry of Intelligence agents had been present in the meeting room and Mr. Nili’s objected this. Reza Younesi continued: “After fixing an appointment, Mr. Nili goes to visit Ali. However, two agents of the Ministry of Intelligence are present in the meeting room and Mr. Nili protests against this. So the agents, call their boss who insists that the agents must be present in the meeting room. The lawyer does not accept this and leaves the room and Evin Prison. On the way out, they call Mr. Nili again and ask him to come back to the meeting room and promising that there will be no agents.”
In an interview with Meidan News Agency, Mr. Nili protested the detention of Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, two elite students of Sharif University, considering the completion of their interrogation process.
In this interview, Mustafa Nili, explaining about his 20-minute meeting with his client Ali Younesi, said: “The defendants, Ali Younesi and Amir Hossein Moradi, have been in custody since April of last year. And after a prolonged struggle, in February of this year, we managed to get our power of attorney signed by them ,and intervened the case as their lawyers. Right afterward, our request to meet with the clients was submitted to the Department of Supervision of Political and Security Convicts. However, the supervising prosecutor for the defendants and convicts of political and security cases stated that the fulfillment of this request was in power of the hearing judge and subject to his permission, a claim with no legal validity. All of the judges of the court well know and acknowledge that the issuance of such a permission is the responsibility of the supervising prosecutor and lies in his power not in that of the judge.
Mr. Nili continued: “Therefore, once again on the occasion of the new year, we submitted a request to the supervising prosecutor for a visit with the clients, and we were promised that the necessary measures would be taken to obtain a positive result. However, even though the hearing was held on April 12, we still were not granted the permission to meet the client and instead, we just studied the case. Finally, we, the lawyers, met the clients in the past 15 days.”
He added: “As the clients were not transferred from the security ward of the Ministry of Intelligence in Evin Prison to the court, the April 12 hearing was rescheduled. Now, after such a long time of waiting, we are expecting the hearing date to be announced which we hope to be soon and that there will be no more problems with transferring the clients to the court.
“It is noteworthy that our clients are still being held in security ward 209, separate from the other defendants. Whereas the preliminary investigation in which the legal officer is still able to intervene the completion of the investigations was finalized in September last year, after obtaining the last defense of the clients and issuing an indictment by the prosecutor’s office! Therefore, keeping the clients in the security ward at the request of legal officer (Ministry of Intelligence), has no legal validity and has created difficult conditions for the clients,” Nili said.
“The clients are two 20-year-old men who have been in security ward 209 for almost 14 months today – the first 60 days of which in solitary confinement – with restrictions on the use of the outdoor fresh air, access to telephones etc, Mr. Nili continued.
Ali Younesi’s lawyer stated: “Undoubtedly, a 20-minute meeting between a lawyer and a client is not enough for preparing a defense bill and presenting a proper defense to the court. Moreover, keeping the client in Evin Prison Security Ward 209, has added to the difficulty of this. During the meeting with the client, it was determined that he was in good physical condition. However, the detention condition of these two young men are absolutely unusual and unacceptable, and harmful physical and psychological effects of which on the defendants cannot be denied.”
In the end, he said: “We expect that Tehran Prosecutor’s Office as well as the supervising prosecutor of the accused and convicts of the political and security cases take a decisive measure to prevent the continuation of these extra-legal acts.” He added: “We all know that keeping the defendants in ward 209 and denying them of their basic rights is against the law and violates the principle of a fair trial.”