Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
A/HRC/25/61 para 96(d)
Full recommendation:
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To investigate all allegations of mistreatment and/or psychological and physical torture, and to
prosecute the parties responsible.
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 Islamic Penal Code 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 punished, unless the abuse has resulted in death,
in which case accomplices will be punished along with the chief perpetrator. Notably, 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.
Article 218 of the IPC stipulates that, in the case of hudud crimes, defendants’ claims that their
confessions or testimonies were made under coercion are to be taken at face value. The exceptions
to this rule are the offenses considered more serious under moharabeh (“war against God”),
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
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