“corruption on earth,” or “indecent offenses committed by coercion, force, abduction, or
deception.” In these instances, the court must carry out examinations and investigations of claims
of coerced confessions of guilt.
In practice, a variety of coercive means, both physical and psychological, continue to be widely
used by interrogators against suspects after their arrest and in the pre-trial phase, including to
secure confessions or collaboration with authorities. In the absence of adequate legal safeguards,
courts continue to rule confessions made without the presence of a lawyer during the investigation
phase as admissible, and in many cases, confessions extracted from torture have been the primary
evidence on which judges have based their verdicts, including in death penalty cases.
Current Iranian law allows a person lodge a complaint if they are subjected to torture, inhumane
treatment or detention, and to seek punishment for offenders at the judicial disciplinary courts, the
Armed Forces Judicial Court, the Article 90 Commission of the Parliament, and/or Oversight
Bodies for the exercise of Citizenship Rights in the country's provincial courts. No report has been
published yet on the functioning of these institutions as the government authorities seldom make
this sort of information public, so it is difficult to say how many complaints are being investigated
and responded to by state institutions. Despite the existence of legislative mechanisms for victims
of torture during detention to receive compensation,6 there are no public reports of victims
receiving compensation of any sort after submitting allegations of violations of their right to
freedom from torture. It is assumed that there are cases of victims being compensated but this
information is not made public by the relevant authorities.
Though there are instances where allegations of torture in prison and detention facilities are
investigated by various state mechanisms in charge of such processes, there is no information
available on such investigations resulting in any sort of disciplinary action or prosecution against
the alleged perpetrators. On the contrary, high-level cases of torture allegations raised by prisoners
against prison authorities often end in the state mechanisms in charge of investigating these
allegations declaring that no torture took place, resulting in the victims being accused of
“propaganda against the regime,” a charge that can carry a sentence of up to a year in prison, for
allegedly lying about their abuse and misusing state resources in investigations on false claims.7
Despite numerous requests and reports from human rights organizations and the United Nations,
reports continue to be published about judicial and security authorities failing to meet international
standards by denying political, civil, and prisoners belonging to ethnic minorities access to medical
treatment facilities.8 Although the Code of Prisons and Detention Facilities Administration
acknowledges the prisoners’ right to access these facilities, in practice, there have been many
reports that prison officials or the interrogation team denies this right. 9 There is insufficient
information to indicate whether Iranian authorities have properly investigated prisoners’
6
Articles 14 and 255 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
https://iranintl.com/en/iran/vaezi-regime-has-right-sue-esmail-bakhshi-torture-claims
8
https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/mde_13.4196.2016_health_taken_hostage__cruel_denial_of_medical_care_in_irans_prisons_final.pdf
9
https://iranhumanrights.org/2019/07/un-seriously-concerned-over-irans-consistent-pattern-of-denying-prisonersmedical-treatment/
7
2