Criminal Court Summons Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, No Charge Specified
(June 17, 2013) – Just days after moderate candidate Hassan Rouhani won the eleventh presidential election held in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Iranian state press announced today that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current President of the IRI, has been summoned to Branch 76 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province.
The summons was purportedly made pursuant to a complaint from several members of Iran's parliament, the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
The official information website of the IRI's executive branch has released a scan of the notice of summons issued to Ahmadinejad. According to the document, Ahmadinejad is required to appear before the court on November 26, 2013, almost four months after he is required to leave office. No charges or details of the complaint are specified on the document, which simply references the individuals filing it—Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative assembly; the head of the assembly's Article 90 commission (which hears complaints against the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government as specified by Article 90 of the Constitution of the IRI); and Yaghoub Khalilnejad, about whom no information has been confirmed.
In response to the summons, the president's office points out that the lack of a specified charge on Ahmadinejad's notice violates the Constitution of the IRI. Article 32 of the Constitution does state that detainees must be notified of charges against them as soon as possible, although it does not explicitly state that such a notice must enumerate the charges relevant to the summons. But the notice suggests a violation of Article 140 of the Constitution of the IRI, which states that legal charges against the President, his Vice Presidents, and cabinet ministers are within the competency of the public courts, not criminal courts like the one that issued this summons (translation below).
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/new...dinejad-no-charge-specified.html#.Ub9QdvleYh_
(June 17, 2013) – Just days after moderate candidate Hassan Rouhani won the eleventh presidential election held in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), Iranian state press announced today that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current President of the IRI, has been summoned to Branch 76 of the Criminal Court of Tehran Province.
The summons was purportedly made pursuant to a complaint from several members of Iran's parliament, the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
The official information website of the IRI's executive branch has released a scan of the notice of summons issued to Ahmadinejad. According to the document, Ahmadinejad is required to appear before the court on November 26, 2013, almost four months after he is required to leave office. No charges or details of the complaint are specified on the document, which simply references the individuals filing it—Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative assembly; the head of the assembly's Article 90 commission (which hears complaints against the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government as specified by Article 90 of the Constitution of the IRI); and Yaghoub Khalilnejad, about whom no information has been confirmed.
In response to the summons, the president's office points out that the lack of a specified charge on Ahmadinejad's notice violates the Constitution of the IRI. Article 32 of the Constitution does state that detainees must be notified of charges against them as soon as possible, although it does not explicitly state that such a notice must enumerate the charges relevant to the summons. But the notice suggests a violation of Article 140 of the Constitution of the IRI, which states that legal charges against the President, his Vice Presidents, and cabinet ministers are within the competency of the public courts, not criminal courts like the one that issued this summons (translation below).
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/new...dinejad-no-charge-specified.html#.Ub9QdvleYh_