Update on the Iran Activists - Den Haag action of April 6th
krkw - 08.06.2010 14:13
Update on the Iran Activists
The trial of ten people suspected to be involved in the incident at the Iranian Embassy in the Hague on April 6 of this year began last Wednesday (June 2d 2010) - see  http://indymedia.nl/nl/2010/04/66505.shtml. They took part in solidarity with the people of Iran, who are suffering under their increasingly repressive regime. The order of the day includes torture, executions, and disappearances, and prohibitions on assembly, speech, and religious freedom. It has been almost a year since the elections which were crudely rigged by the governing regime, and the bloodshed crackdown of protests in Iran. The Iranian regime has placed at least 2 million paramilitary forces on the streets, rearrested many recently released dissidents, and stepped up its enforcement of bans on clothing and assembly. (New York Times, May 31)
Activists hang flag with pic of Neda
After the action on April 6th in Den Haag, blogs and internet fora have been filled with many comments from Iranians, thanking the ten in English and in Farsi for acting in the Netherlands against the tense and bloody situation in a faraway land.
Here in the Netherlands, meanwhile, the exact details of what took place are being unravelled in the courtroom.
The most serious charge is article 117b of the Dutch criminal code, a fairly obscure article about which little case history exists (quoted in Dutch below). The translation is, "Whoever intentionally commits violence against the protected things pertaining to an internationally protected person will, if the safety or freedom of that person is endangered, be punished with a prison sentence of no more than 8 years, or a fine of the fifth category."
It is unlikely that the accused will receive such a draconian sentence; what is interesting, though, is the collaboration of the Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie/OM) and the embassy staff in avoiding the embarrassing political details and trying to frame the story as a case of vandalism and threats.
The embassy staff has unsurprisingly pressed forward with a story about broken flowerpots and insulting slogans; the Public
Prosecution Service has gone a step further, hunting through the lawbooks for charges which obviously don't fit the reality of the situation, even making the unfounded suggestion that the "freedom" and/or "safety" of the Ambassador were threatened. If the more serious 117b charge doesn't succeed, then lesser charges will be tried in turn, including "vernieling in vereniging" (criminal damage as a group); and failing that, simple "vernieling".
The ten are also accused of insulting the embassy staff and stamping on the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran; and, one or more of them are also being accused of not complying with the national "legitimatieplicht" (Dutch identification law).
In order to have the case handled as quickly as possible, the Prosecutor (Officier van Justitie/OvJ) pled to deny the defence the right to call key witnesses, and to restrict their access to the evidence being used by the prosecution.
The defence objected to this and pled to postpone the trial. This request was granted at the end of the first court session on June 2d, and the trial will continue on September 15th.
The defence wants to call 3 witnesses, among them an unknown man who works or collaborates with the Embassy who attacked the protesters during the action, and the Ambassador to Iran, the "internationally protected person" in question in Article 117b. The OvJ tried to block both witnesses, claiming that they were of no relevance.
The defence also requests unfettered access to the video material being used as evidence, against the wishes of the Prosecutor; and finally, the defence pointed out that one of the accused was unable to attend the trial for personal reasons, which the OvJ claimed was the accused's own choice.
All of the prosecution's witnesses, consisting of six police officers, were called, and told their own versions of events. Finding a way to piece these fragments together will be an interesting part of the next court date. It will also be interesting for the defence to challenge just how much the officers relied on their own perceptions and judgements, and how much they attempted to fit their testimony into the embassy's version of events.
The trial is open and support in the courtroom -- which can be as simple as just showing up -- would be greatly appreciated, because it would help move the proceedings away from the stories about vandalism and trespassing and towards a political story about the activities of the embassy, its legitimacy on Dutch soil, and its collaboration in the human rights abuses perpetrated daily by the government it represents.
There will also probably be some form of demonstration outside the courtroom, the details of which are not yet clear.
So we hope to see you in the Hague on September 15th.
- - - Artikel 117b van het Nederlandse Wetboek van Strafrecht:
Hij die opzettelijk geweld pleegt tegen de beschermde goederen van een
internationaal beschermd persoon wordt, indien daardoor gevaar voor de
veiligheid of de vrijheid van die persoon te duchten is, gestraft met
gevangenisstraf van ten hoogste acht jaren of geldboete van de vijfde
categorie.
- - -
 E-Mail: plaguethehague@gmail.com  Website: http://iranlives.blogspot.com/
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