The Guardian Council of the Iranian Constitution has approved the law passed by the Iranian Parliament regarding political crimes.
The Guardian Council had previously found one aspect of the parliamentary bill to be ambiguous.
According to the Guardian Council’s objection, Articles 2 and 3 of the parliamentary bill created ambiguity. Article 3 stated that “unlawful deprivation of individuals’ freedom” is not a political crime, yet Article 2 considered “violation of others’ legitimate freedoms” a political crime under certain conditions.
The Islamic Consultative Assembly removed the phrase “unlawful deprivation of individuals’ freedom” and resubmitted the bill to the Guardian Council, which this time approved the parliamentary measure.
The Iranian Constitution stipulates that political accusations should be tried in open courts with a jury, but over the past three decades, because political crime had no clear definition, political defendants in most cases were tried in closed courts without a jury.
According to the new law, political crimes are crimes committed with the motivation of criticizing the government’s performance or acquiring or maintaining power, provided that the perpetrator did not intend to strike at the fundamental principles and frameworks of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s system.
The note to Article 1 of the Political Crime Law states that “the country’s religion and official sect, the system’s foundation in absolute guardianship of the jurist, Islamicity and republicanism” are considered fundamental principles and frameworks, and committing criminal acts against them are not included within the definition of political crime.
Generally, political prisoners in Iran are tried on security charges. Iranian officials say no one is imprisoned in this country for ideological reasons. Former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last year: “We do not imprison people for their beliefs.”
