Page 39 of Grave Danger

Zahra tugged at her lawyer’s elbow. Jack asked the judge for a moment to confer, and Zahra whispered into his ear. “Don’t object,” she said. “It’s true. Farid and I never...”

Jack glanced across the courtroom at Farid. He was staring down at the table, embarrassed—as any man would have been—by the truth.

Jack rose slowly to address the court. He would have been a fool to stand on his objection, only to have Zahra confirm the imam’s testimony later in the case, when she took the stand.

“Your Honor, I withdraw my objection.”

“Very well,” the judge said. “The testimony is admitted as evidence.”

Beech appeared satisfied. “I have no further questions.”

“Cross-examination, Mr. Swyteck?”

Lack of consummation didn’t conclusively establish that the marriage was a fraud, but the imam had done serious damage to Zahra’s defense, and Jack had to repair it.

“Yes, Your Honor,” said Jack, and then he turned to the witness on the screen.

“Imam Reza, I’m told by my client that some members of your mosque refer to you not as imam but as mullah. Is that true?”

“Some do, yes.”

“In Tehran, the termmullahis sometimes used to describe clerics who adhere to a literal interpretation of Islamic law. Isn’t that true?”

“That is generally true,” he said.

“Is it fair to say thatyouadhere to a literal interpretation of Islamic law?”

“I would not deny that statement.”

“Under Islamic law, a divorced man or a widower is allowed to remarry, correct?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Is it also true that, in the case of divorce, Islamic law has very specific rules on how long a divorced man must wait before he can remarry?”

“I believe you are referring to what Islamic law refers to asiddah. That is a three-month waiting period. Normally, this waiting period applies only to a divorced woman, not to a divorced man.”

“Under what circumstances does the waiting period apply to a divorced man?” asked Jack.

“Only if the man intends to marry the sister of the divorced wife. In such a case, he will need to wait for theiddahto expire because a man is not allowed to be married to two sisters at the same time under the principles of Islam and sharia.”

Jack was out of his depth on the nuances of Islamic law, but so far, so good.

“Let me make sure I understand,” said Jack. “In a situation where a divorced man seeks to marry the sister of the divorced wife, at least three months would have to pass before you would perform the wedding ceremony. Correct?”

“That’s correct,” he said.

“Let’s look at the timeline for Farid Bazzi’s situation, specifically. Farid’s wife Ava was arrested two years ago this month. The seventeenth of October. Will you accept that representation?”

“Yes. That sounds right. I will accept that date.”

“And as the story goes, Ava Bazzi fled the country soon after that date, abandoning her husband and her daughter.”

“That’s correct.”

“As you testified earlier, Farid Bazzi then sought divorce on grounds of abandonment, correct?”

“Yes.”

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