01.2008 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Report on the government's use of security laws as a pretext to detain civil rights activists without charge (women's movement, union and labour activists, students and independent journalists) ("“You Can Detain Anyone for Anything” - Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism") [ID 22165]

"Article 32 of Iran’s constitution requires that “charges with the reasons for accusation must, without delay, be communicated and explained to the accused in writing, and a provisional dossier must be forwarded to the competent judicial authorities within a maximum of 24 hours.” Article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure also sets 24 hours as the limit within which authorities must provide a detainee with a written reason “in cases where the detainee must be kept in detention in order for authorities to continue their investigations.”

Ordinarily, Iranian law requires a judge to authorize any pretrial detention and provide written charges within 24 hours of any arrest. Article 32 of the Code of Criminal Procedure states that a judge may issue temporary detention orders for cases involving offenses under the Security Laws, allowing authorities to hold detainees without charge beyond the 24-hour period. Article 33 of the code gives the accused the right to appeal his or her detention order within 10 days. While Article 33 also states that the detainee’s case must be resolved in the course of one month, it also allows the judge to renew the temporary detention order. The codes set no limits on how many times this order may be renewed.

Police and judiciary security forces often hold people under investigation for suspected violation of the Security Laws, in pretrial investigative detention, for weeks and months without any criminal charge being brought against them and without the opportunity to appear before a judge to challenge their detention.

Detainees who are released without having been charged often fear being rearrested as a form of harassment. Several of the former detainees Human Rights Watch interviewed for this report claimed that this process is a tactic the government uses to create an atmosphere wherein activists fear that they may be re-arrested at any time. According to these activists, the government deliberately maintains open cases to intimidate its critics."

Document(s): Open document

08.03.2006 - Source: US Department of State

16-year-old girl hanged without having access to a lawyer ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005") [#46058],  [ID 18355]

"In August 2004 Iranian media reported that 16-year-old Ateqeh Rajabi was hanged in public for "acts incompatible with chastity." Rajabi was not believed to be mentally competent and had no access to a lawyer. The supreme court upheld her sentence. An unnamed man arrested with her received 100 lashes and was released."

Document(s): Open document

30.09.2005 - Source: International Federation for Human Rights

Concerns about situation of lawyer who has been detained in solitary confinement since July 30, at prison of Evin in Tehran; since beginning of his detention, he has been denied right to have access to lawyer and to receive visit of his family ("Lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, detained incommunicado since two months") [#37294],  [ID 8681]

Document(s): Open document

03.08.2005 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Teheran: Prominent lawyer arrested by authorities for “revealing secrets relating to the case of nuclear spies.”; Nobel laureate was also threatened ("Iran: Harassment of Rights Defenders Escalates") [#35019],  [ID 8682]

Document(s): Open document

02.08.2005 - Source: Reporters Sans Frontières

One of lawyers representing imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji, secretly detained since 30 July ("Authorities arrest one of Akbar Ganji's lawyers") [#34632],  [ID 8683]

Document(s): Open document

31.07.2005 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Leading human rights lawyer who was acting on behalf of hunger-striking political prisoner, arrested by judiciary ("Ganji near death as one of his legal team is arrested") [#34608],  [ID 8684]

Document(s): Open document

12.07.2005 - Source: Amnesty International

Human rights defender granted medical leave from prison for treatment of his kidney stones; repeated requests for him to be granted leave from prison in order to receive this treatment were blocked by Tehran's Chief Prosecutor ("Iran - Further Information on UA 113/05") [#33925],  [ID 8685]

Document(s): Open document
Open document

08.03.2005 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Lawyers & trials ("Civil and political rights [E/CN.4/2005/NGO/310]") [#30293],  [ID 8686]

"[...]According to a recent statement by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s hardline judiciary is doing all it can to prevent human rights lawyers from defending political prisoners. “Judge and lawyer are each one wing of the angel of justice, but one of them has been amputated,” said Ebadi, who heads a group of Iranian human rights lawyers. “Lawyers have been in and out of jail. I have also been in prison. They keep summoning me here and there. I have been subject to threats for 10 years.” Ebadi recently received a summons and “the judge himself did not know why.” Ebadi spent 25 days in solitary confinement in 1999 and was denied access to lawyers, radio and newspapers.
Those detained by the legal authorities face an impossible task in choosing a human rights lawyer to defend them. Roozbeh Mir-Ebrahimi was arrested last autumn in a crackdown on journalists and freed at the end of 2004. His family asked Ebadi and Mohammad Seifzadeh to defend him. However, “I was told in prison that with the charge against me I risked 15 years in prison, and that with these lawyers I would receive 25 years. My interrogator forced me to reject them and said that they were only serving their own interests.”[...]"

Document(s): Open document

04.03.2005 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Written statement by the International Federation for Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) on freedom of expression, torture, women rights, discrimination against minorities and the death penalty ("Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world [E/CN.4/2005/NGO/158]") [#30291],  [ID 8687]

"[...]
Mr. Nasser Zarafshan, a lawyer and human rights defenders, is equally in jail since August 2002.
It should also be noted that Shirin Ebadi, lawyer and human rights defenders, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2003, was summoned in January 2005 by the Revolutionary Public Prosecutor's office of Tehran. After she refused to appear before the investigating judge, considering the summons as illegal because it didn't specify why she was summoned, representatives of the judiciary declared that it was a mistake.[...]"

Document(s): Open document

16.01.2002 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Lawyers continue to be under pressure if they defend clients unpopular with some of the elite ("Report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, prepared by the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Maurice Danby Copithorne, pursuant to Commission resolution 2001/17 (E/CN.4/2002/42)") [#5732],  [ID 8688]

"38. Lawyers in Iran continue to be under pressure if they defend clients unpopular with some
of the elite. During the period under review, several more were summoned by the Judiciary,
apparently for remarks they had made, typically remarks critical of the Judiciary. For example,
Mohmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, whose clients had accused the police of torture, was sentenced to
eight months in prison for “defaming” a former police chief. Nasser Zarafchan, a lawyer for
family members in the serial murders case, is being sued for “revealing” flaws in the verdict of
that trial.
39. In this context, the Special Representative recalls Commission resolution 2001/39
of 23 April 2000, and the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers adopted by the
Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders
and welcomed by the General Assembly in resolution 45/166 of 18 December 1990. The
Special Representative urges the Government to respect international standards with regard
to the status of lawyers.
40. Some judges continue to violate the human rights of detainees, particularly in the pre-trial
stage (see the Special Representative’s interim report to the General Assembly A/56/278,
para. 25). The Special Representative notes that the name of Said Mortazari continues to show
up in press stories about the most egregious conduct of the Judiciary (see para. 11). The
Special Representative recalls being told by a senior Judiciary official that Mortazari was one
of 40 judges being investigated by the Disciplinary Court for Judges. Meanwhile, however, he
continues to wreak havoc with such rights as freedom of expression. The Special Representative
recommends that Judge Mortazari be immediately suspended from the bench, pending a decision
on his case by the Disciplinary Court for Judges."

Document(s): sr-irn-0102.pdf
Open document

11.2001 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

00.11.2001 – ACCORD: Several lawyers detained, tried, convicted and suspended for actions within the scope of their duties as lawyers ("7th European Country of Origin Information Seminar Berlin, 11 - 12 June 2001: Final Report - Iran") [#7661],  [ID 8689]

"Amnesty International is further concerned that the Bar is no longer able to discipline its members, despite legal provisions and international principles supporting this function. Under the 1956 (Legal) Bill on the Independence of the Bar Association, investigations into the malpractice of lawyers are undertaken by the Bar’s Lawyers’ Disciplinary Prosecutor and the Lawyers’ Disciplinary Courts. Art. 17 of this law states that no
lawyer can be suspended or banned from the practice of law except by a final decision by the Disciplinary Court.

The Revolutionary Court, however, has appeared to disregard this law and has detained, tried, convicted and suspended lawyers such as Nasser Zarafshan, Mohsen Rahami and Shirin Ebadi for actions that amounted to no more than carrying out their duties as lawyers.

In addition to being an encroachment on the mandate of the Lawyers’ Disciplinary Court, the trial of these cases in the Revolutionary Court raises serious concern about guarantees of due process and fair trials."

Document(s): cois2001-irn.pdf