[단독]Iran has not confirmed charges for three weeks

It was confirmed that Iran, which detained Korean ships, was not even taking the beginning of judicial proceedings, including accurate notification of charges. It is contrary to the refusal of diplomatic consultations to the Korean government, saying, “We have no choice but to deal with judicial procedures.” Contrary to Iran’s argument, some point out that the detention of the vessel was not evidenced by certain charges or evidence to support it.

A Korean ship’Korea Chemie’ captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on the 4th (local time). An employee of a ship management company in Korea Chemie is checking CCTV footage on the 5th.

In this regard, a diplomatic source said, “It is the beginning of the investigation to inform the party of the charges of detention or arrest, but the detained sailors have not even been notified of the charges.” Not only did they not notify sailors or ships of specific charges, but even if the government requested it through diplomatic channels, it was consistently silently answering. Immediately after the capture, the Revolutionary Guard and the head of the Iran Shipping Association argued that “the detained vessel repeatedly violated marine environmental regulations,” but they have been asking for nearly three weeks about what laws were violated.

There was no proper field investigation of the ships detained here. An official from DM Shipping, a shipping company of the’Korea Chemie’, said, “When I last checked a week ago, I heard that no type of investigation has begun yet.”

A senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 21st, “The Iranian side has to show subjective grounds to discuss, but there is no such thing yet.” In Iran, the legal system is complicated, such as the existence of the Sharia Law, a Muslim law, as well as general law, because at least you need to tell us which law was applied to hold the ship in order to take legal action.

Due to this situation, sailors are unable to appoint lawyers locally. The fact that the revolutionary garrison is leading the ship is also making the situation even more difficult. An official from the shipping line said, “We are looking for lawyers in various ways through insurance companies, but no one is willing to step forward when we know that the revolutionary garrison is intertwined.” At the same time, he said, “It is not clear what to do with the Port Authority, the Fisheries Bureau, the judiciary, etc.”

In the midst of this, Iran is only sending comments from government officials who are questioning frozen funds in Korea through local media. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Jarif said on the 20th (local time) that “Korea received US orders and Iran took money to buy food and medicine.” However, Iran has publicly refused to buy humanitarian goods such as ambulances with frozen funds. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that it was the reason for “small size”.

Remarks on Korean ships by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Jarif, released on the Iranian government website on the 20th (local time)

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry also announced on the 17th (local time) that it has “proposed to the United Nations how to use our money frozen in Korea to pay the UN annual fee.” It was shortly after reports that Iran was in a position to be deprived of the right to vote by the United Nations because of its failure to pay dues.

Reporter Park Hyun-joo [email protected]