TEHRAN, Oct 2 (AFP) - Prominent Iranian dissident Ebrahim Yazdi, who is facing charges of seeking to overthrow the Islamic regime, boycotted the first hearing of his trial Saturday, one of his lawyers told AFP.
"This court is not competent. The accusations against Mr. Yazdi are political and have to be handled in an open trial with a jury and the public present," said Mohammad Ali Dadkhah.
The lawyer, who along with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is defending Yazdi, was speaking outside Tehrans revolutionary court on what was supposed to be the first day of his trial.
Yazdi, who is 73 and heads the banned Iran Freedom Movement, was accused in November 2001 of "attempting to overthrow the regime" and "propagating against the regime".
"The court cannot oblige me or Mrs. Ebadi to bring Mr. Yazdi along," Dadkhah asserted, saying the only court competent to pronounce on the legality of Yazdi's party and his activities was a public court.
He also complained that the Revolutionary Court had denied the defence team access to the case file.
Yazdi was one of the closest aides to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during his final exile in 1978 in France, and served as foreign minister in the provisional government of Mehdi Bazargan.
The Iran Freedom Movement, founded in the 1960s by Bazargan, is a liberal, nationalist opposition movement seen as close to Iran's reformers.
The group was tolerated until 2001 but is now banned in Iran because it questions certain principals of the Islamic Republic.
In March 2001, nearly 60 members and sympathisers were arrested on charges of wanting to "overthrow the regime" on the eve of presidential elections won by the reformist Mohammed Khatami.
Fifteen of them were condemned to sentences of up to 11 years in prison, and are awaiting the outcome of their appeal.