Ali Reza Tahery

---

Ali Reza Tahery was convicted of wounding with intent. It was clear that Tahery had a fight with the victim and other men. During that fight the victim was stabbed three times in the back. The key evidence against him was from a witness who was too fearful to give evidence in court, but his statement was admitted. This statement was the only evidence that it was Tahery who stabbed the victim. This was important evidence. The European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a violation of Tahery’s right to a fair trial due to the admission of the statement. On appeal, the court noted that objective factors pointed to the unreliability of the statement (the animosity of the maker of the statement towards Tahery and a contradictory initial statement to the police) and the fact there was no evidence which Tahery could call to rebut it. They found that if the jury did not have means to assess the reliability of the statement then it would not have been admitted and directions given by the judge were not sufficient. The appeal was therefore allowed, and the conviction was quashed.

View Press (innocent.org.uk)

View Press (www.mojuk.org.uk)

< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph