Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
A/HRC/22/56 para 78(h)
Full recommendation:
Investigate all allegations of torture, address impunity and end the culture of investigation
through confession as reflected by the breadth of reports communicated to the Special
Rapporteur.
Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1
The Constitution of Iran clearly prohibits the use of any form of torture to obtain confessions,
and considers the confession resulting from torture acts to be inadmissible in court.2
Additionally, Article 169 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code (IPC), stipulates that “confession
which is taken under coercion, force, torture, or mental or physical abuses, shall not be given any
validity and weight and the court is obliged to interrogate the accused again.”
In addition to the Constitutional Prohibition, the 2013 IPC not only criminalizes the use of
torture and imposes a punishment on the perpetrator (qisas and diya punishments as well as 6
months in prison) 3 but invalidates confessions obtained through torture.4 Article 60 of the Code
of Criminal Procedure (CCP), revised in 2015, prohibits coercion and leading, inviting, insulting,
or impertinent questions during interrogation, and declares statements and confessions made in
response to such interrogations legally void. It also stipulates that records of the dates, times, and
lengths of interrogation sessions should be kept and certified with defendants’ fingerprints. The
law on the Respect for the Legitimate Freedoms and Citizenship Rights also prohibits specific
instances of torture.5
Article 578 of the IPC prescribes a punishment of six months to three years of imprisonment
(besides blood money and qisas penalties) for judicial personnel who physically abuse
defendants for purposes of extracting a confession. In cases where such abuse is committed
pursuant to an order, only the party who issued the order will be so punished, unless the abuse
has resulted in death, in which case accomplices will be punished along with the chief
perpetrator. Notably, this Article 578 omits psychological torture entirely, and pertains only to
physical torture intended to yield a confession: psychological torture as a mean to coerce a
defendant to cooperate or toward any other end is not criminalized.
1
CCPR.7.S.1; CCPR.7.P.1 ; CCPR.7.O.1
Article 38 of the Constitution.
3
Article 578 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code.
4
Article 169 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code.
5
Articles 6, 7 and 9 of the law on the Respect for the Legitimate Freedoms and Citizenship Rights (adopted on 4 May 2004).
2
1