( BP000529
By M. Cherif Bassiouni
The toll of executions must be about 600 as a,
result of decisions by the “Islamic Revolution,
ary Tribunal” of Iran.
But Iran's “Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal”
is all revolutionary Sand very little Islamic.
That reality has seldom if ever been ex-
pressed. . .
The Western world's media have not in any
way focused on the Islamic criminal justice.
system. Hail they done so, it would have been
clear to the world that those minimum rights.
guaranteed that are considered part of inter-
national human standards of.due process are
embodied in the Islamic legal system. That
they have been violated in Iran is beyond ques-
tion.
To clarify the question of Islamic criminal
justice the First International Conference on.
the Protection of Human Rights in the Islamic
Criminal Justice System was held at the Inter-
national Institute of Advanced Criminal Scien-
ces at Siracusa, Italy, in May, 1979. There
were 55 scholars and experts from 24 coun-
tries, of which 16 Islamic ones, represented
mostly by government officials, agreed with
their colleagues from the Western world to the
following resolution:
WHEREAS the First International Conference•
on the Protection of Human Rights in the Is-
lamic Criminal Justice System has been held
r in Sra u ' taly,- at -the -International- In- -
7IC.e / O)3j DV
Iran's revolutionary justice is not Islamic
stitute of' thgher Studies in Criminal Scien conformity therewith; . Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
ces, May 28-31, 1979; ‘ (4) the right to appear before' an appro- . . Offenders;
WHEREAS it has been established, to the satis- priate tribunal previously established NOW THEREFORE the participants of the
faction of all participants from both Islamic by law Confevence in their mdividua} capacities, de
and- non-Islamic nations that the letter and (5) the right to a public trial; sirous of upholding the aforementioned .prin-
spirit of Islamic Law on the subject of the. (6) the right not to be compelled to testify ciples and the values they embody, and de-
protection of the rights of the criminally ac- ‘ against oneself; sirous of ensuring that .the practices and
cused are m complete harmony with the fun -(7) the right to present evidence and to call procedures of Islamic and Muslim nations
damental principles of human rights under witnesses in one's defense; ‘ . conform thereto, solemnly declare that:
international law as well as in complete har- (8) the right to counsel of one's own chaos- . Any, departure from the aforementioned
mony with the respect accorded to. the ing; ‘ , . principles would constitute a serious and
equality and dignity of all persons under the (9) .the right to a decision on the merits grave violatiOn of Shariah Law, internatiOnal
constitutions and laws Muslim and non based upon legally admissible evi human rights law and the generally ac
Muslim nations of the world; - .dence; . ‘ cepted principles of international law re-
WHEREAS the basic human rights embodied (10) the right to hav the “decision in the flected in the constitutions and laws of most
in the principles of Islamic Law include the case rendered in public; ‘ nations of the world.
following rights of the ‘criminally accused, . (11) the' right to benefit ‘from the ‘spirit of The, resolution implicitly condemns the prac-
inter .alia: ‘ S mercy and the goals of rehabilitation tices of the Iranian “Islamic Revolutionary
- ‘ and resocialization in the consideration Tribunal” by unequivocally showing that it has
(1) the right of freedom from arbitrary ar- . of the penalty to be imposed; and failed to follow the very precepts of Islam by
rest, detention, torture, or physical an- (12) the right of appeal ‘ ‘ which it claims to be bound. Thus'it confirms
nihilation; . ‘ ‘ . . that the tribunal is simply a revolutionary one
(2) the right to be presumed innocent until WHEREAS the aforemeOtioned rights of due and it should be judged as such. If so, its prac-
proven guilty by a fair and impartial process of law contained in Islamic Law are tices should be viewed within ‘a political and.
tribunal in accordance with the Rule of ‘ in complete harmony with the prescriptions not a legal or Islamic context. Criticism should
Law; . . . of the International Covenant on Civil and therefore fall within a political revolutionary
(3) the application of the Principle of Le- Political Rights which has been signed or rat- classification as opposed to the implicit mes-
gality winch calls for the right of the ifted by many nations mcluding a significant sage conveyed by the Western media that the
accused to be tried for crimes specified number of Muslim and Islamic nations and Islamic criminal justice ‘system permits such
in the Qu'ran or other crimes whose which reflects generally accepted, principles' practices..
cleai and well-established meaning and' of international law contained in the Univer- . S
content are determined by Sliariah Law sal Declaration of Human Rights oç 1948, M. Cierf. as.sio sni i pnjfessor P 1 09”;
-( -Islamie -Law)orbya-vrimina l -codein -'-- :‘ ‘ ( i' S aib pautun 'it ei4ity: •‘
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