Aadel Collection
Iran: Justice in Iran (International Commission of Jurists Review – December 1981)
ty 1 . Death sentences have often been ac-
companied by flogging or carried out by
stoning.
Having dealt with former officials of the
Shah's regime, the courts began to concen-
trate on people accused of moral transgres-
sions and of being counter.revolUtiona 5'
(i.e. anyone opposed to the Khomeini re-
gime). The charges included “corruption
on earth” and “waging war against God, his
Prophet, his Imam and the representatives
of the Imam”. This policy followed the
line of action which Ayatollah Khomeini
emphasised in a speech in the Feyzia Islam-
ic Institute of Learning: “It is .. a day-to-
day programme of identifying the oppo-
nents of Islam. Our struggle against them
shall become more intense” 2 . And so it
did. Numerous official statements point to
the conclusion that the present repression
has now discarded all the safeguards of the
Rule of Law. In the words of President:
Bani-Sadr “There is no more law”. Exain
pies of this arbitrary rule are as follows
— many pnsoners under the Shah's regime
were released in February 1979, c -
be arrested again under similar c..
(such as spying), arbitrarily tried
sentenced to imprisonment, if not
uted. Such was the case of Reja
who, first sentenced to ten years ii
onment, was shot after a secoru
secret trial;
— ethnic minorities (Kurds, BaluchiS, ‘
menes, Azerbaijanis, and Arabs) 1
seen their demand for a greater 4
1) Human Rights Violations in the Republic of Iran, Chicago, I11 , May 1980.
2) Imam Khomeini, “The revolutionarY line of action”, Great Islamic Library.
r o I ?
flo.
of self-government met with a repres-
sion, which can only increase the risk of
rebellion against the central government.
Cases of massacres, imprisonment and
executions have been widely reported;
— religious groups banned by Islam are in-
creasingly harassed under the new re-
gime. The Baha'is, who represent a pop-
ulation of 400,000 in Iran, face charges
such as promotion of prostitution, co-
operation with Zionism, spying for im-
perialist powers, corruption on earth
and warring against God. Thousands
have lost their homes and possessions,
hundreds have been dismissed from
their jobs and many of them have been
executed by revolutionary firing squads;
— the main opposition groups after the
overthrow of the Shah (democratic
groups, moderate Islamic groups and
t. left-wing opposition including the Fed-
- dayin Khalq and the radical Moslem
-rst groups led by the Nujahiddin Khalq)
- have not only been denied the right to
share power in the post-revolutionary
Iran, but are severely repressed. Not a
week has passed without arrests and ex-
,ecutions of many of their members;
- , writers, poets and artists are particularly
. harassed. The first Islamic Revolution.
‘ ary-Judge and now also a member of
“parliament, Sheik Sadeg Khalkhali, has
;‘not hesitated to demand the execution
. of;intellectuais such as Chamlou, a fa-
rnous Iranian author who is well-known
for, his non-adherence to any political
party and his non-involvement in any
political activity. Five prominent intel-
lectuals who fought against the previous
regime, were arrested recently: Homa
Nategh (sociologist and professor at the
University of Teheran), Mr. Rawandj
3) Time Magazine, 20 September 1981.
4) International Herald Tribune, 30 September 1981.
5) Ghj j e Iran newspaper, Teheran, 28 June 1981.
(historian and journalist), Mr. Parham
(sociologist), Mr. Rahimi (literary critic
and writer), Mr. Monzawi (islamologist).
Professor Nategh is reported to have
been executed in November;
— lawyers and judges are also among the
victims of government's policies. Ac-
cording to Judge Abdolkarjrn Ardebii,
President of' the Supreme Court, islamic
judges have been convicted because they
“made mistakes” and are at present de-
tained in Kevin prison. There is also evi-
dence that defence lawyers have been
arrested, imprisoned and in at least one
case, executed;
— those who face firing squads now in-
clude women and youths. It was report-
ed in Time Magazine on 20 September
1981 that 150 youngsters were shot in
a mass execution on 4 September 3 . In a
recent statement, Teheran's revolution-
ary prosecutor, Assadollah Lajevardi de-
clared: “Of course, even a 9-year old
can be executed if it was proved to the
court that he or she is grown enough” 4 .
Although the Prosecutor asserted that
such a case had not happened yet, it has
been reported in the Iranian press that
13-year-old children have been shot 5 ;
—. ‘counter-revolutionary activities' include
the distribution of leaflets, incitement
of innocent youths to subversion, and
participation in demonstrations (charges
often leading to death sentences). In a
campaign to muzzle dissent in the
schools, the government has arrested
teenagers. The number of students bar-
red from school is estimated at up to
70,000;
— cases of torture and ill-treatment have
been regularly reported. An example of
ill-treatment was Nasrollah Entezam,
5
BP000144
Iran
rUSt ice in Iran
After the initial liberation under the
ew regime in Iran following the overthrow
f the Shah in February 1979 there has de-
eloped steadily an ever greater repression
,ith a sickening growth in the number of
xecutiofl5 and increasing violence through-
)ut the country- According to the most re-
ent statementS, 3,350 persons have been
txecuted sinde 1979, more than 2,000 of
them since the dismissal of President Bani-
Sadr, i.e. from June to October 1981.
These figures may be substantial underesti-
mates.
ImmediatelY after the FebruarY 1979
revolution so-called Islamic evolutionary
Courts were set up to prosecute agents of
the Pahlavi regime. The procedures of these
courts clearly violated Iran's international
obligationS. People were tried under retro-
active legislation for acts which did not
constitute penal offences at the time when
they were committed. Accused persons
were put on trial with no previous warning
of the charges, no opportunity to prepare
a defence, to engage a lawyer or to bring
witnesses in their defence. They were con-
demned to death and immediately execut-
ed without any rights of appeal, whether in
law or for clemency. Those not condemned
to death were in peril of double jeopardy;
an example was General Nazemi who was
condemned to 15 years imprisonment and
a few months later was retried on the same
charges, condemned to death and executed
in violation of all international norms, in-
cluding the International Covenant on Civil
and political Rights to which Iran is a par-
‘ -I '
aged 82, former president of the fifth
Session of the UN General Assembly,
who died in prison for lack of medical
attention. When Bani-Sadr was still Pres-
ident he said “They are arresting people
as before, they torture... Everybody
knows there are tortures. It is just like
before, man has no rights, they arrest
him and eliminate him just as one
throws out garbage”. 6
The government seeks to justify these
measures as necessary to repress attacks
made by terrorists. Undoubtedly, the at-
tack against the Islamic Republic Party on
28 June 1981 (killing 74 of the party's of-
ficials and leaders and Ayatollah Beheshti)
and the bombing on 30 August 1981 (kil.
ling President Mohammed Au Radial and
the Prime Minister Mohammed Bahonar)
were turning points in the escalation of vio-
lence and repression. Recently the govern-
ment of Iran claimed that the entire popu-
lation condemns these criminal acts so
strongly that “even relatives of the terror-
ists help the Judicial Body for their arrest
and for their execution”. The International
Commission of Jurists in no way supports
acts of terrorism, but where a regime treats
all criticism of itself as treason and as an
offence against God, to be met with execu-
tion, attempts at political assassination are
to be expected.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 12
August 1981 ordered Iranian embassies and
missions to draw up a list of Baha'is, coun-
ter-revolutionaries and “so-called students”
living in their jurisdiction. It has also pro-
hibited the renewal of their passports and
has ordered instead the delivery of a “tran-
sit-paper” which is valid only for a return
journey to Iran 7 .
6) ICJ Review No. 26, p. 23.
7) The ICJ is in possession of a photocopy of this instruction.
8) Le Monde, 2 September 1981.
Present Trial Procedures
In ICJ Review No. 25 of December
1980 the Rules of Procedures of the Islam-
ic Revolutionary Tribunals were summaris-
ed. While recognising that the rules covered
a number of safeguards, concern was ex-
pressed about important omissions regard-
ing the preliminary investigations, lack of
adequate time for the preparation of the
defence, limitation of the maximum period
of the trials to one week and the denial of
any right of appeal or revision.
Since then it is clear that the rights of
the defence as provided for in the Rules of
Procedure are being disregarded. Frequent
use is made in official reports of the ex-
pressions “summary trials” and “justice on
the spot”. ‘Summary trials' appear to cover
either cases in which there is no trial at all,
or in which, following a mere examination
of the ‘file', a person is condemned with-
out being heard, or with little or no de.
fence rights. That this is official policy ap-
pears from a statement made by the High
Judicial Council after the bomb attack on
30 August 1981, in which President Radjai,
the Prime Minister and many others were
killed. It asked all persons in charge of the
judicial system to “shoot immediately trai- I
tors to Islam and to the Islamic country
after a rapid examination of their files” 8 .
Arrested persons who are tried are still
held incommunicado, without being Tj
the charges against them and -
cess to a lawyer. No mention is ever r. .
of defence counsel taking part in trial pro
ceedings. It seems that practicing-lawye
are not now permitted to defend in p
cal trials. Indeed, according to s
by higher judicial officials, the défenc
offenders would be contrary to ‘Isla
laws, in that the defender is thereby an ac-
cessory to the accused person's crimes. This
is borne out by a report that a newly quali-
fied lawyer, Mr. Mohsen Jahandar, was ac-
cused of defending prisoners before Revo-
lutionary Committees, condemned to death
and shot before a firing squad about the
end of August 1981.
The Teheran Procurator General, Mr.
Lajevardi, when asked why journalists
could not attend trials, answered: “We
don't have time to invite journalists. We
work hastily day and night” 9 .
The Revolutionary Tribunals have re-
• cently turned to trying cases which are not
within their jurisdiction as defined in the
• regulations'°. These include charges of
prostitution, adultery, simple theft and
drinking alcohol. Sentence of death by fir-
ing squad or by stoning have been imposed
for prostitution or adultery, and the cut-
ting off of a hand for simple theft.
/
Justice ‘in the streets'
In other cases there has been no trial of
any form, and this has been justified on the
highest authority. On 19 September 1981,
in an address broadcast on radio and televi-
sion Ayatollah Moussave, the Revolution-
ary Procurator General, stated that “to kill
the people who stand against this regime
and its just Imam is a prescribed duty ac-
cording to Islamic laws. If they are captur-
ed , our men will not let them eat and sleep
for a few months. The trial of these people
‘ streets. I also order the city prose-
to do the same; otherwise they them-
will be punished”.
a the same day, Ayatollah Mohammadi
9) Le Monde, 22 July 1981.
10) See ICJ Review No. 25, at p. 21.
‘) Kyhan newspaper, Teheran, 20 September 1981.
!) Ibid.
Gilani, the Ghazie Shara' of Teheran, Stat-
ed at a press conference in Evin prison,
“Islam permits people engaged in armed
demonstrations in the streets to be captur-
ed, stood against the wall of the street and
shot” 2 .
The Law of Talion
An unusual Bill known as the ‘Bill con-
cerning the Law of Talion' was submitted
to the Parliament in April 1981, but has
not, at the time of writing, been passed into
law.
The Bill, which contains 199 articles,
was drafted by the Higher Judicial Council.
It would revive the right of a person physi-
cally injured or the relatives of a person
put to death to seek revenge by inflicting a
similar injury or, in the second case, by
causing the death of the assailant. The Bill
goes into a great deal of detail as to the
manner and circumstances in which the
right can be exercised.
The provisions of the Bill follow closely
the requirements of the Islamic Law of
Quesas as enumerated in the late seventh
century AD and as developed by Islamic
Jurisprudence in the eighth and ninth cen-
turies. It disregards, however, later develop.
ments of Islamic jurisprudence which apply
the principles underlying that law to chang-
ing circumstances in such a way as to mod-
erate their application.
In spite of the title of the Bill, 119 of
the 199 articles of the Bill do not relate to
the Law of Talion but are concerned with
the punishment of various offences such as
adultery, sodomy, lesbianism, proxenetism
and drinking of wine. If the Bill passes into
7
se1v
aw, it will replace large parts of the exist-
ng civil and penal codes.
°ro tests
The manner in which ‘Islamic justice' is
eing administered in Iran has been de-
wunced by courageous Iranians within the
;ountry, as well as those in exile.
In a recent speech addressed to the
Majlis (Parliament), Mehdi Bazargan said
that “bloodshed and intolerance was threat-
3ning the future of the Islamic republic”.
Mr. Bazargan has been reported to be in
iiding after a violent reaction following his
3peech.
A group of 38 prominent Iranian intel-
Lectuals (writers, academics, lawyers) said
in an open letter that two years of Islamic
rule had brought repression, torture and in.
justice.
Fanaticism, rule by torture and destruc-
tion of the country in the name of Islam
were among the criticisms made by Hoja-
toleslam Hossain Khomeini, the Ayatollah's
grandson, in a speech in Mashad which led
to his imprisonment for a brief period' 3 .
Very recently, Ayatollah Shariat Madha-
ri, perhaps the most moderate of the reli-
gious leaders, who is confined to his house
in Qom, asked for a visa to travel abroad.
This request is seen as a protest against the
repressive measures and the arbitrary exe-
cutions of opponents to the regime' 4 .
Outside the country, voices have been
raised against the regime both from organi-
sations and individuals. In an open letter to
the Human Rights Division of the United
Nations, Chapur Baktiar denounced, early
1981, the ongoing violations of human
rights which resulted, among other things,
in the death of Nasrollah Entezam referred
13) Iran Press Service, 10 June 1981.
14) Le Monde, 9 November 1981.
to above. In another letter to the General
Director of UNESCO, he denounced the
cultural repression which represents a sys-
tematic destruction of Iranian culture.
In September 1980 and in April 1981,
the European Parliament adopted two reso-
lutions requiring protection of Baha'is and
of their freedom of religion. In September
1980, the UN Sub-Commission on the Pre-
vention of Discrimination and the Protec-
tion of Minorities adopted a resolution stat-
ing it had heard statements ‘clearly demon-
strating the systematic persecution of the
Baha'is in Iran, including summary arrests,
torture, beatings, executions, murders, kid-
nappings, disappearances, abductions, and
many other forms of harassment' and ex-
pressing its conviction ‘that the treatment
of the Baha'is is motivated by religious in-
tolerance and a desire to eliminate the Ba-
ha'is Faith from the land of its birth'. This
comes close to an allegation of genocide.
The resolution went on to draw the atten-
tion of the Commission on Human Ri '
to the ‘perilous situation faced by the
ha'i Community of Iran'.
The Human Rights Committee i
the Covenant on Civil and F
decided at its meeting in Bonn on
tober 1981 (after its proceedings h
interrupted by a group of Iranian studer
to request the government of Iran to s
mit its overdue report on the protection
civil and political rights of Iranians. J]
Iranian Ambassador to Bonn declared
his government had every intention o
filling its obligation but was not in a
tion to finish work on the report du
the state of war. Nevertheless, the C
man of the meeting, Mr. Mavrommati
ed for a report or at least an iL
without further delay. 1
It is hoped that the United Natic
man Rights Commission and other organisa-
tions will do all in their power to bring pres-
sure upon the government of Iran to ob.
serve its obligations under international law
Malaysia is one of the few countries in
South East Asia with an elected govern-
ment under a democratic constitution. Un-
like most other countries in the region,
where participation in political life tends to
be limited under one or another form of
authoritarian government, Malaysia has re-
tained the structures of a Parliamentary
democracy supported by an active and ef-
fective “informal sector”. Nevertheless, re-
cent events give cause for concern and have
even led some to fear that democratic free-
doms in the country may be restricted.
These concern in particular amendments
to the Societies Act and changes in the
constitution which are seen by some to
pose a potential threat to these democratió
freedoms, especially freedom of speech and
association. The changes to the Societies
Act may result in restrictions on political
dissent and the alterations to the constitu-
tion mean that the country could be ruled
by decree indefinitely after the declaration
of an emergency. The amendments, which
were passed through parliament precipitate-
are causing widespread disquiet among
awyers, non-governmental organisations
nd professional people including some
nembers of the government parties. It is
by instituting a system of fair trials under
the rule of law, with full respect for defence
rights, rights of appeal and the other rights
specified in the International Covenant.
relevant to examine these two amendments
in the light of opinions voiced against them.
Amendments to the Societies Act
Already in 1975 the Universities and
Colleges Act restricted student activities in
the country's campuses. In 1979 regula-
tiOns were drawn up to forbid university
lecturers from participating in politics. Fur-
ther, in 1980, Parliament passed amend-
ments to the Trade Union Ordinance, plac-
ing numerous restrictions on the activities
of trade union organisations and giving
much stronger powers to the Trade Union
Registrar.
Recent amendments to the existing So-
cieties Act 1966 give the government
sweeping powers through the Registrar of
Societies to control the activities of the
14,000 societies registered in Malaysia.
— The changes make it illegal for any soci-
ety to comment on political affairs or
anything to do with government unless
it has been registered as a political socie-
ty.
— The Registrar is given power to de-regis-
9
Malaysia
Amendments to the Societies Act
and to the Constitution
