There are reports of Iranian authorities having initiated formal investigations into individuals with judicial functions following accusations of corruption, bribery and abuse of power The selection process of judges in Iran impacts the judicial process and undermines the due process of law. In 2014, a Judiciary’s circular listed the most common complaints against judges and the numerous violations of the principle of due process.9 These included unlawful arrests, failure to renew temporary detention orders within the prescribed time, failure to render decisions within the prescribed time, ruling prior to the conclusion of the investigation and trial, issuing decisions in courts of original jurisdiction without convening a trial session, issuance of “unfounded and undocumented” rulings, issuing rulings outside the scope of the complaint, and unpleasant, inappropriate, and insulting conduct.10 There is little transparency regarding these complaints and their outcome and not all of them were considered. During the Iranian year 1395 (March 20, 2016 –March 19, 2017), Iran’s General Inspection office received 30,315 complaints. The office sent 3,464 emails to those who had filed complaints. Written follow-ups of local and provincial investigations amounted to 1,502.11 Due process violations are particularly grave in Iran in light of the strikingly high numbers of executions conducted by the State. At least 5,079 executions have reportedly been carried out in Iran since the beginning of 2012 through to May 27, 2020.12 For its Universal Periodic Review in 2019, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that it held “Human rights training for judges, judicial officers and administrative staff on the rights of the child, the rights of persons with disabilities, the prohibition of torture and illtreatment and the confronting against domestic violence” as well as “training courses on citizenship rights for judges, staff and judicial officers”.13 However, frequent reports of the violation of fair trial rights and due process standards suggest that the training received by the members of the judiciary in the Islamic Republic of Iran has not been appropriate.14 In 2014, President Rouhani reportedly stated that “a lawyer should be immune from any prosecution for carrying out its professional duty, and the investigative authority for the lawyers’ 9 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Iran Human Rights Document Center, Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf 10 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/2994 11 Ministry of Justice 2017 report on the accomplishments of the Judiciary in the year 1395. https://www.justice.ir/FileSystem/View/File.aspx?FileId=5282d9cd-913e-4c78-b3d8-b39475070de2 12 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/memorial 13 National Report, Islamic Republic of Iran, UPR, 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1 14 See more: Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Iran Human Rights Document Center, Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf 2

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