Third, Paknejad himself was a profound jurist and, by presenting defenses based on the principles of fundamental rights, was able to challenge the legal and political foundations of the monarchy and the court he stood against. Fourth, Paknejad’s approach to the governing law and the concept of right was exemplary for the fighters who came after him. It should be noted that most of the defenses that were made by fighters before Paknejad against the courts of the Pahlavi regime had a very different style, context, and content. Undoubtedly, by presenting defenses based on legal principles on the one hand and libertarian and egalitarian ideas and ideals on the other, Paknejad invented a method and approach to political activism that fighters could use to defend themselves and their rights while simultaneously challenging the legal-political foundations of an authoritarian system. The echo of this approach can be clearly heard and felt in famous defenses such as those of Mehdi Rezaei (1972), Khosrow Golsorkhi (1973), and Keramatollah Daneshian (1973).
Finally, the fifth and final point is that the social impact and importance of Paknejad’s defenses were so great that many of the youth and students who were involved in distributing and disseminating them were arrested and imprisoned by SAVAK. The trial of the Palestine group and Paknejad’s defense created a new and widespread wave of protests against the repressive policies of the Pahlavi regime and the situation of political prisoners.Due to the domestic and international pressure that followed this wave, the judiciary was finally forced to back down a bit and reduced Paknejad’s sentence, which was thought to have been a death sentence, with one degree of reduction, to life imprisonment with exile and hard labor. In this context, the newspaper Etelaat reported on the military court’s verdict on the charges of the fourth-degree defendant, citing the law “Punishment of Precedents Against the Security and Independence of the Country” (1931): “Shakrollah Paknejad is sentenced to life imprisonment because he had acted against the internal security of the country and his crime has been proven by the court.”