HRANA News Agency – The court hearing of Mohammad Najafi, lawyer, was not held due to absence of the judge in the Branch 102 of the Criminal Justice Court in Shandiz, in the Markazi province. Mr. Najafi is charged with “disturbing the public opinion”.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Mohammad Najafi along with his lawyers, Mr. Payam Dorafshan and Arash Keikhosravi, showed up in Branch 102 of the Criminal Justice Court in Shandiz, in the Markazi province, to address the charge of “disturbing the public opinion”, however, because of the absence of the judge, the trial did not take place and the case was postponed indefinitely.
An informed source confirmed the news in an interview with HRANA’s reporter and said, “Mohammad Najafi, a lawyer and one of the active lawyers in the field of human rights, has now been released on the bail in this case.”
HRANA had reported earlier that the prosecutor of Bar Association of Markazi Province (Arak), citing unidentified complaint of a citizen, had prosecuted Mr. Mohammad Najafi by a series of politically motivated charges.
Part of Mr Najafi’s charges have been announce as; “Participating in Nasrin Sotoudeh’s illegal sit in”, “Advocacy of Nasrin Sotoudeh and Nourizad” and “Blogging and posting critical contents on Facebook”.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer for Mr. Najafi, in this regard had told HRANA’s reporter; “Lawyers Disciplinary Court cannot prosecute a lawyer in order to spur for political and security charges, and can only involve into these type of matters when a competent court had already issued a decision on such charges and the lawyer has been convicted.”
This is to say that the initial complainant has introduced themselves as “individual members of the society” and has signed as “signature reserved”, and claimed that Mohammad Najafi provides youth aberration by his activities which “make the enemy happy.”
Shazand city is one of the Markazi province’s cities. The center of this city is Shahzand, which is 33 kilometers southwest of Arak.