Protests Increase Over Presence of Human Rights Violators on Judiciary’s List of Trusted Lawyers
Amid criticism over the publication of a 20-person list as trusted lawyers of the judiciary authorized to practice in security cases, the presence of some judicial figures with a history of issuing death sentences and harsh verdicts on this list has also drawn protests.
Social media users and a number of human rights activists, referring to several names on the judiciary’s list of trusted lawyers, condemned the presence of these individuals.
These individuals include judges and judicial officials who practice law after retirement.
Protests have been directed at the presence of “Hassan Tardast,” a judge who issued hundreds of retaliatory sentences, “Abdolreza Mohebati,” deputy to Tehran’s prosecutor and prosecutor’s representative in the court of 2009 defendants, “Reza Jafari,” head of the office investigating cybercrimes and sanctioned for human rights violations, and “Mojtaba Panahi,” head of the Basij Lawyers Association.
Hassan Tardast is known for issuing a death sentence for “Rayhaneh Jabbari,” a girl who was executed at age 19 for the murder of her 47-year-old boyfriend, despite case defects including questions about self-defense claims.
Reza Jafari is known for extensive arrests of cyberspace activists during his tenure as head of the office and for being sanctioned by the European Union for human rights violations. Abdolreza Mohebati also read the prosecutor’s indictment against prominent figures protesting the 2009 elections in court.
In recent days, a number of bar association lawyers have protested the appointment of a limited number of approved lawyers to defend security and political defendants.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a bar association lawyer, also told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that by presenting the judiciary’s 20-person list of approved lawyers, the right to defense that political and security defendants have had in a limited manner until now is being eliminated, and implementing this provision means saying goodbye to the legal profession in Iran.
The appointment of judiciary-approved lawyers comes at a time when Iran’s judicial system typically does not allow security and political defendants to have a lawyer before trial.
Deprivation of the right to have a lawyer, especially when security and political defendants are forced to make compulsory confessions in the preliminary investigation stages, is considered by many international human rights organizations to be one of the cases of violation of defendants’ rights in Iran.
Source: Voice of America
