That President Mohamed Khatami, or Kharrazi, have any current information on or influence over the proceedings of the hardline judiciary is unlikely. From the onset, Iranian government officials have privately confided that the case is a political football, manipulated over the course of months by the hardline establishment to alternately embarrass and pressure the Khatami government. The Shiraz judiciary has attempted to be open about the case by talking to reporters, issuing statements and allowing the accused to appear on national television. This, according to some observers, lent a misleading aura of efficiency to proceedings that international human rights observers believe fail to meet even the minimum criteria of a fair trial. Iranian reformists anticipation that the highly sensitive trial would strengthen the hand of the anti-Iran lobbies in the West seemed mere wishful thinking.
European countries show no sign of pulling back politically or economically.
The Jews' defense team intends to lodge a final appeal to the national supreme court, but the team's head, Ismail Nasseri, never appeared confident that justice would prevail. He claims to have received death threats because of his continued insistence on his clients' innocence. From the outset, Nasseri stressed that politics, not the judge, presided over this trial.