The lawyer for two Americans detained in Iran says the case judge is violating court regulations by delaying the verdict beyond the one-week limit.
Massoud Shafii said Iranian law requires the courts to issue their verdict one week after the final trial. Shafii told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: “Once the judge announces the end of the trial, he must run sentence right there or at most take a week to do so. Therefore, in this case, I have to say that the judge is in violation.”
Shane Baeur and Josh Fattal had their final trial on July 30, and yesterday the spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, announced that the court’s verdict will be issued soon.
Massoud Shafii said: “In such sensitive cases, they are so concerned about the content of the verdict that they do not pay attention to the administrative issues, and delays in such cases are not unprecedented.”
Bauer and Fattal are two of three Americans detained in July of 2009 in the Iran-Iraq border regions, accused of illegal entry.
Iranian authorities have said they are spies, but they maintain that they inadvertently entered Iranian territory during a hiking trip in the mountainous regions of Iraq.
Their companion, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail last September for medical reasons.
