Opinion | Iran executions: the role of the ‘revolutionary courts’ in breaching human rights
- Criminal trials in Iran’s ‘revolutionary courts’ often occur behind closed doors presided over by clerics, without standard practices of criminal procedure
- The courts, and Iran’s morality police, are integral to the consolidation of Islamist power which began within a few months of the 1979 revolution
Central to Iran’s response have been the country’s “revolutionary courts”. They have conducted heavily-criticised trials resulting in at least four executions, while over 100 protesters are in considerable danger of imminent execution.
Criminal trials in these courts often occur behind closed doors presided over by clerics, with none of the standard guarantees of criminal procedure such as allowing time and access to lawyers to prepare a defence.
Submissions to the United Nations from Iranian civil society organisations report that lawyers are routinely denied access to clients, and that coerced confessions, often obtained by torture, are used as evidence.
Unfair trials
Criminal trials that are unfair by international standards have been a feature of the Iranian legal system since the 1979 Islamic revolution.