The plan to ban recording and broadcasting confessions from the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation: Legal vacuum or failure to implement the law
A month after the presentation of the bill "Prohibiting the Recording and Broadcasting of Confessions of Individuals by the Iranian Broadcasting System," the fate of this bill remains uncertain. The bill was prepared by Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran, but has not yet been placed on the agenda of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
In an interview with the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, a lawyer in Tehran, welcomed the plan as an emphasis on implementing the principles of the constitution to protect the rights of citizens and the rights of defense of the accused. However, Nemat Ahmadi, a lawyer in Tehran, said in an interview with the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that if those who have attempted to obtain confessions and broadcast them through the media in violation of the constitution and criminal procedure were dealt with, there would be no need for such plans.
On October 27, 2019, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative of Tehran and a member of the Omid faction, announced the submission of a two-pronged plan to the presidium of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. The plan states that “recording confessions of individuals and broadcasting them on the Islamic Republic Radio and Television and other mass media is prohibited at any stage of the prosecution and preliminary investigation, and the perpetrator, whether producer or broadcaster, will be sentenced to imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years, in addition to the obligation to restore the dignity of the accused.”
If passed by the parliament and approved by the Guardian Council, this bill stipulates that "if the act of recording or broadcasting is carried out by or on the orders of officials or agents affiliated with government institutions and agencies, the said official or agent will be sentenced to dismissal from service and deprivation of one to five years from government jobs, in addition to the above punishment."
This plan, however, only prohibits the recording and broadcasting of confessions from the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation and other media outlets, and is silent on obtaining such confessions. Nemat Ahmadi, a lawyer and attorney in Tehran, said in an interview with the campaign about this plan: “In Iran, we do not have a lack of law or a legal vacuum. We always have a problem with the executors because the law is not being implemented. The Criminal Procedure Code does not allow even the names of individuals and the course of the case to be announced before it is finalized. That is why it became fashionable from the beginning to call the names of the accused or accused by abbreviations, such as A.B., and they refused to give the full names of the individuals. But unfortunately, the law is applied selectively.”
Mr. Ahmadi said: "According to the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure, not only recording and broadcasting confessions is a crime, but even taking a confession in front of a camera is a crime. We have a preliminary investigation stage, meaning I commit a crime, the prosecutor declares the crime, and the investigator begins the investigation. Investigation means discovering the truth, not putting me in front of a camera to speak against myself, which, regardless of whether it is against the Code of Criminal Procedure, is considered a form of torture according to the numerous principles of Chapter 3 of the Constitution. All the restrictions of Chapter 3 of the Constitution under Principles 19 to 40 prohibit torture, including obtaining a confession by force, taking the other party's name, and playing with the person's reputation, and it is against the law."
In Chapter 3 of the Iranian Constitution, which Nemat Ahmadi refers to, Article 37 states that “the principle is innocence, and no one shall be considered guilty by law unless his crime is proven in a competent court.” According to Article 38, “Any form of torture to obtain a confession or obtain information is prohibited. Forcing a person to testify, confess, or swear is not permitted, and such testimony, confession, or oath is void of value and validity. Anyone who violates this principle will be punished according to the law.”
Article 39 of the same law also states that “insulting the honor and dignity of a person who has been arrested, detained, imprisoned, or exiled by law, in any form, is prohibited and punishable.”
Nemat Ahmadi told the campaign about the plan presented by Mahmoud Sadeghi: "As someone whose job is law, I believe that the plans are basically crude and are the creation of the hour, and the parliament should have maturity and coherence in the plans and bills. At the end of each parliamentary term, parliamentarians present two or three plans like this, which before they are intended to be in the public interest, are a kind of controversy. Otherwise, we have numerous principles of the constitution, we have Article 90, and representatives can give a warning, they can ask the Minister of Justice. The head of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation cannot be asked because the leader chooses him, but representatives can use their current tools to implement the principles of the constitution in preventing the taking, recording, and broadcasting of confessions."
According to Article 90 of the Constitution, “Anyone who has a complaint about the workings of the Parliament, the Executive Branch, or the Judiciary may submit their complaint in writing to the Islamic Consultative Assembly. The Assembly is obligated to investigate these complaints and provide an adequate response. In cases where the complaint concerns the Executive Branch or the Judiciary, it is obligated to investigate and request an adequate response from them, and to announce the result within a reasonable period of time, and to inform the public in cases that concern the public.”
Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, a lawyer and attorney in Tehran, has a different opinion. In an interview with the campaign, he said that the proposed plan to ban recording and broadcasting confessions from the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation and other media is “an emphasis on implementing the principles of the constitution.” Mr. Khorramshahi said: “When Mr. Rouhani presents the Charter of Citizens’ Rights or the judiciary itself presents a circular on citizens’ rights, they have nothing newer or beyond the constitution. This plan is the same, and in fact, this plan reminds, reminds, and emphasizes that the principles of the constitution and criminal procedure must be observed.”
Mr. Khorramshahi considers the approval and implementation of this plan to be in order to protect citizens' rights and said: "When the accusation is not proven in court, regardless of the fact that recording and broadcasting the accused's confessions is contrary to his defense rights, it has no effect. At one time, broadcasting confessions may have had a certain impact, but now public opinion has come to the conclusion that if a person is accused, he should be tried in an impartial court, taking into account his defense rights. And as long as that person or accused is not tried in an impartial court, if he speaks against himself, it may be against his will. That is, no sane person will confess against himself unless he is under pressure. Such confessions do not have a positive impact on public opinion, and the proposal to ban the recording and broadcasting of such confessions is a step towards protecting the rights of the accused and emphasizing the Criminal Procedure Code and our Constitution, which prohibit torture under any title, whether mental or physical, and clearly state that the accused should not be forced to confess or make confessions through physical or mental coercion. In particular, Article 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code explicitly states that the publication of the image and other details related to the identity of the accused is prohibited by the media and law enforcement and judicial authorities in all stages of preliminary investigations.
In the introduction to his bill, which he submitted to the presiding board of the parliament, Mahmoud Sadeghi wrote: "According to Article 39 of the Constitution, any form of insult to the dignity and honor of a person who has been arrested, detained, imprisoned, or exiled by law is prohibited and punishable. Accordingly, judicial authorities and judicial officers are obliged to respect the dignity and honor of persons who have been accused, interrogated, or investigated in any way. Unfortunately, it is sometimes seen that the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting attempts to broadcast confessions of persons who have been accused or interrogated, although their innocence may be proven after further investigation and judicial proceedings. In addition to insulting the dignity of individuals, this seriously damages public trust and the credibility of government agencies in the eyes of public opinion. In order to prevent and combat this action, the present bill prohibits the recording and broadcasting of confessions, and provides for a guarantee of criminal execution in accordance with the criminal regulations in similar cases."
He explained that this project “has nothing to do with broadcasting public court hearings investigating economic crimes; it is about the confessions of the accused during the interrogation stage, that is, before the trial stage, and its subject is typically political and security accusations. Such as the documentary “Terror Club” about the confessions of the accused of nuclear terror attacks, which was broadcast on August 5, 2012, on the Islamic Republic of Iran Television, and it was recently revealed that the accused were innocent and that those confessions (apparently except for one case) were all lies.”
In recent months, the arrest of a number of Iranian citizens on charges of involvement in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in 2012 has become a crisis for Iran’s intelligence services. On August 3 of this year, Mazyar Ebrahimi, one of these individuals, revealed in front of BBC Persian television cameras about the torture he suffered during his detention. He, who now lives outside Iran, spoke in front of television cameras about the long-term torture and forced confessions he and other innocent citizens were subjected to as suspects in the assassination of nuclear scientists by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and were eventually released after several years. After Mazyar Ebrahimi’s revelation, some members of parliament called for the Ministry of Intelligence to be held accountable and for the detainees to be comforted.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) violates the rights of detainees, especially protesters and political activists, in violation of Iranian and international law that guarantees due process, prohibits the use of force, and prohibits torture. Detainees are often forced to “confess” to crimes, often under torture or threats from themselves or their relatives, and IRIB films these forced confessions and broadcasts them on its television channels, often in an attempt to intimidate and humiliate individuals. These “confessions” are part of a deliberate effort to discredit and defame protesters, human rights defenders, and activists. IRIB works hand in hand with interrogators and security, intelligence, and judicial officials to stage, film, and broadcast these false confessions, which have been repeatedly documented by victims and witnesses. These forced confessions then become key “evidence” that is usually presented in courts to convict the targeted individuals, generally of various crimes.
After the proposal to ban the recording and broadcasting of confessions from individuals on the Iranian Broadcasting System (IBS) was presented in the parliament, the "confessions" of two detainees on the IRIB have been broadcast in recent days. Ruhollah Zam, the director and founder of the Amadennews website and channel, and Sahar Tabar, an Instagram personality. These are the two prisoners whose forced confessions were broadcast by the IRIB.
On October 15 and 16, the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Bist-o-Sisi” program broadcast the confessions of Ruhollah Zam, whose arrest was announced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Monday, October 14. Nemat Ahmadi told the campaign: “We still don’t know what charges Mr. Ruhollah Zam is facing and what legal provisions he is subject to? But we see his confessions on the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation, which are against numerous legal principles.”
The “confessions” of Fatemeh Kh., known as Sahar Tabar, an Instagram personality, were broadcast on Tuesday, October 20, in the form of a report titled “Sarih darbar farhang” on the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation’s program 2030. Nemat Ahmadi told the campaign: “Such programs and confessions have no effect on the case of these individuals. The way these types of cases are formed is fundamentally special and specific. They want to intimidate society’s privacy through such confessions. However, which of the laws of society has someone who manipulates their appearance violated? If someone goes to get cosmetic surgery, let’s arrest them and put them in front of the camera and ask them why they had cosmetic surgery? Now this woman has come and done ugly surgery, where does the law say that it is a crime? Is there anything wrong with the surgery itself? Whether it is for beauty or for ugliness. On the other hand, spreading information on social networks can be a crime when it contains a criminal act, such as spreading lies or disturbing minds. This girl’s work is not subject to any of these and does not correspond to any of them. "And it seems that a kind of bad taste in adapting the matter to the law has gripped the gentlemen."
Nemat Ahmadi added that "from the beginning, there was no action taken against those who carried out these acts, that is, those who extracted and broadcast forced confessions, to prevent them from being repeated. In the serial murder case, they dealt with the person who had broadcast the tape, not the person who had carried out the torture and extracted the confessions in that way. Because these people are not dealt with, these acts will be repeated."
Source: Human Rights Campaign
