Lawyer declined visiting rights with his detained US clients

Massoud Shafii, the lawyer of the three US detainees in Iran announced that since the release of Sarah Shourd in September, he has not been allowed to visit his other two clients.

Massoud Shafii has told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the next trial date for his clients has been set for February 2 which he considers to be too late.

Shafii says that he has written to the judge in order to get his clients an earlier trail date and also proposed to allow the two US citizens out on bail and allowed to remain until their trial date at the home of the Swiss ambassador, who represents US interests in Iran.

Massoud Shafii maintained that the trial on November 16 was cancelled due to “failure of prison and court authorities” to present the accused.

He added that he has not been informed why Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal were not at their trial on November 16. He also added that Sarah Shourd was not formally summoned by the court so she was not supposed to be present at that trial.

Shafii claims that he has written to the judge to gain permission to visit his clients; however, the judge has told him that he will see them at the trial. Shafii maintains that he should be allowed to see his clients prior to the trial in order to review and prepare his case. In addition, he says that with great difficulty he was finally allowed to read their file but he was not granted permission to visit his clients.

Last month, Iran’s spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei announced that Sarah Shourd who was released on bail in September and allowed to return to the US, has to appear in the trial of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer or else her bail money will be confiscated.

Massoud Shafii emphasized that Sarah Shourd has not been formally summoned by the court and therefore talk of confiscating her bail money is “meaningless and illegal.”

He added that he has read all the details of the file and cannot find any reasonable evidence for the “charge of espionage.” In terms of illegal entry into Iranian territory, he also maintained that his clients cannot be really blamed since there are no clear signs of the geographic divisions.

The three US citizens were arrested in the border region of Iran and Iraq in summer of 2009. Iranian authorities first accused them of illegal entry and later trumped up the charges to espionage. The detainees maintain that they were on a hiking trip in Iraq’s mountainous region and strayed into Iranian territory inadvertently.

Sarah Shourd was finally released on bail last September but Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal remain in custody in Iran.