Selection of 20 lawyers out of tens of thousands of lawyers repressing clients who are subject to an amendment to Article 48 is contrary to easy access and freedom to choose one’s lawyer and therefore contrary to the right to a fair trial.
Unfortunately, the enactment of an Amendment to Article 48 to the Code of Criminal Procedure in 1394 (2015) means the political and ideological defendants who are often accused and tried under ‘security’ charges, may only choose lawyers that have been previously approved by the head of the judiciary. This is while in the chapter dealing with people’s rights, article 35 of the Iranian Constitution states: “In all courts of law, the opposing parties to a dispute have the right to choose an attorney for themselves. If they can not afford to hire an attorney, they should be provided with the means to do so.” In international human rights documents, one of the main pillars of a fair trial is the access of the defendant to a lawyer in all the phases of the investigation and the actual trial. It is given that in order for this right to be fulfilled, the defendant needs to be able to defend himself through legal assistance of his/her own choosing.
According to Article 156 of the Iranian Constitution, the judiciary is an independent body supporting the individual and socials rights of the people without any political or ideological prejudice and carries out its responsibility in actualizing justice. In several international human rights documents and in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which according to the Section 9 of the Civil code is considered the law, the judiciary and the courts are treated as independent whose duty is to execute the law, and to deliver justice. Unfortunately for several reasons, the judiciary and the courts and in particular the revolutionary courts in the Islamic Republic of Iran are not considered independent, but in fact, they are one of the offenders and are a crucial element in the spread of oppression and injustice.
The trials of the political and ideological defendants and the approach of the judges of the revolutionary courts in dealing with these defendants appear to show that the judges of these courts have added a new unlawful way to their previous above-the-law approaches. This is another stamp on the unfair nature of these trials and the verdicts issued in these courts.
It is clear that the Amendment to Article 48 in itself is in contradiction with the principle of a fair trial and the rights of the accused to defend themselves in the pre-trial stage of the process which forms one of the main phases of the preparing a criminal case. The Free Tribune of lawyers has raised its voice since the adoption of this amendment in calling for the removal of this amendment from the Code of Criminal procedure. One of the problems is that the judges of the revolutionary courts do not restrict themselves to the limited scope of this amendment in the initial preparatory investigation of the case, and arbitrarily extend the scope of the amendment to the actual trial. The judges of the revolutionary courts by using this amendment and contrary to the constitution, refuse to accept the certificates of lawyers for the aforementioned defendants during the trial. Furthermore, by creating an intimidating security environment, the judges push away the appointed lawyers of these defendants and force the defendants to accept an unfair trial.
This happens while the constitution guarantees the right of the defendants to have legal assistance of their own choosing, and in this regard, no judges should reject the defendants’ lawyers in their courts.
The Free Tribune of Lawyers once again reiterates the importance of the independence of the judiciary and the judges and urges the removal of the Amendment to Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the revolutionary courts and from the judiciary. The Free Tribune calls for the respect for international standards of a fair trial and the access of all the people including the ideological, political and security prisoners to a lawyer they trust.
The Free Tribune of lawyers warns the judiciary and the judges of the revolutionary courts to respect the articles of the constitution and laws enacted by the parliament and take into account the international principle of a fair trial.
Free Tribune of lawyers
