The delay in the sentencing of former Green MP and Hamas supporter Golriz Ghahraman has set off a Twitter-X storm with Court-spun tales of her parliamentary security detail equalling the PMs and her PTSD issues due to her alleged tendency to ‘build a house and then burn it down’.
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The Crown, led by Power List member and Auckland Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock (left) indicated the planned and repeated nature of her shoplifting, as distinct from a single ‘episode’.
Presiding Judge, June Jelas, a former Crown Counsel, permitted Ghahraman to sit in the public gallery rather than the dock, as any other defendant would do.
“This was a spree of offending. It’s not a one-off event. It’s not a ‘moment of madness’-type case.”
She indicated that there might be another explanation for the offending other than a mental health breakdown.
“Simply that she wanted the items that she took.”
”On its face, that explanation, given the [pre-meditated] nature of the conduct, appears the more likely of the two,” she said.
Lawyer and blogger Philip Crump, who posts as Thomas Cranmer, noted the delays and lengthy submissions made during court submissions:
“A brief aside related to yesterday’s court hearing. Written submissions from the prosecution and defence were filed well in advanced so that the judge had read all the material but it still took nearly two hours yesterday for counsel to make their slow and at times meandering arguments in a relatively straightforward criminal case where the defendant had already pleaded guilty.
“The Court system is under huge pressure. Oral submissions should be limited to 15 minutes per side so we can chop through these cases at a faster rate.”
The X files told something of the public reaction to the spectacle as the seated defendant played out her PTSD from war-torn iran and other supposed issues.
Her lawyer, Annabel Cresswell outlined in submission that there was a “clear diagnosis of complex PTSD” due to her ‘war-torn’ upbringing in Iran and the “public vitriol” following her parliamentary election.
National Party pollster and Kiwi Blog publisher David Farrier called out her so-called PM-level security claims noting that her security was way below anything provided to the Prime Minister.
“The PM has 24/7 armed police officers. Ghahraman had a parliamentary security officer escort her on and off the campus”, wrote Farrier.
And other comments followed –
The continued reliance upon stress and bullying issues saw criticism about her use of alleged stress and mental health issues –
And her support from Hamas and the atrocities committed on October 7 saw her make a political statement from the Courtroom gallery –
