Farrokh Shiri is now due to appear before Truro Crown Court at 10.00am on TUESDAY 22 January, for sentencing. Please note that this date has been changed from the original date of Monday 21 January.

Obviously, this will affect all those who were planning to attend the Civil Rights Solidarity Picket due to take place outside Truro Crown Court at 9.30am. The Picket will still go ahead on TUESDAY at 9.30am and it is hoped that most will be able to accommodate this change of date.

Reasons for the change of date are unknown. We ought to remind ourselves that two very successful solidarity pickets were staged last year at Exeter Crown Court, when Shiri appeared for pre-trial hearings. And these received
good coverage from the local media, giving widespread publicity to Shiri's case. If the date change is an attempt to 'deal with Shiri out of the public eye' then it has already failed.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Farrokh Shiri is an Iranian dissident who was involved in assisting people in danger from torture, rape and death to flee from Iran. His group enabled approximately 80 people from political, religious and women¹s groups to escape over a period of 14 years. He eventually had to leave Iran as he was targeted by the regime and his own life was in danger.

He arrived in Britain in June 2000 and was refused political asylum.

On 7 March 2001, Shiri discovered his appeal for political asylum in Britain had been turned down. In a very distressed state he threatened to take his own life instead of facing torture and death on return to Iran. There was a
four-hour siege by armed police in Penzance in Cornwall, before Shiri calmed down and surrendered without struggle. He was then arrested and an imitation firearm was recovered.

Farrokh was charged with firearms offences and 'fast-tracked' to the Crown Court, spending nearly three months on remand at HMP Exeter.

At Truro Crown Court on 13 December 2001, Farrokh Shiri was found guilty by an 'all-white' jury majority of ten to two, of 'possession of a firearm with Intent to cause a person to believe that unlawful violence would be used against him or another'. The whole trial took just two days even though the trial was listed to last five to six days, to allow for a Farsi interpreter.

During the trial, the interpreter complained several times that the proceedings were being conducted too quickly for effective interpretation. On completion of the prosecution case, the trial judge commented to Shiri's Barrister that 'the evidence in this case appears to be wafer thin'.

More details on Shiri's case are available on the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) website at:  http://www.ncadc.org.uk/
see under 'Help Wanted' & Newsletter Number 23)