of trial. 19 20 Prisoners reportedly remained incarcerated without proper access to legal
representation at all stages of their trial process and lawyers were reportedly denied timely access
to their clients' legal files. 21 22 23 In May 2019, the Iranian legal and judicial parliamentary
commission proposed an amendment to Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which
would allow the prosecution to delay access to a lawyer for 20 days, with a possibility of
extension to the whole duration of investigation, in cases related to national security and
terrorism (charges often held against HRDs) or financial corruption.24 25 Such amendment would
further restrict access to legal counsel during the investigation phase. Yet, the Human Rights
Committee has explicitly stipulated that the accused should be granted prompt access to legal
counsel,26 including during the pre-trial phase.27
Regarding the right to access legal counsel of one’s choosing, a Note to Article 48 of the 2015
Criminal Code of Procedure 28 specifies that individuals facing charges for certain offences,
including those relating to national security and organized crime (charges often held against
HRDs), must select their legal counsel from among a limited list of lawyers approved and
announced by the Head of the Judiciary at the phase of preliminary investigations.29 In 2018, the
Judiciary published the list of approved lawyers, which included only 20 names for Tehran.
However, many of the lawyers named are reportedly close to the security bodies or had paid to
appear on the list after speaking to government officials, threatening due process and calling into
question the independence and neutrality of the Judiciary.30 As a consequence, the right to legal
assistance of one’s choosing, as protected under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Right, is particularly limited.
Defendants in national security cases are often denied access to a lawyer in the investigative
stage of the judicial process. In the hundreds of cases of individuals arrested for political reasons
19
Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Iran Human Rights
Documentation Center, Impact Iran, Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf
20
HRW https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/24/iran-detainees-denied-fair-legal-representation
21
HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/arash-sadegh-golrokh-iraeis-lawyers-access-cases
22
HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/political-prisoner-denied-access-to-an-attorney
23
HRANA https://www.en-hrana.org/court-prevents-lawyer-accessing-files-five-sunni-prisoners
24
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/newsletter/issue/99
25
www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/0379/2019/en/ ; https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/iran-proposed-lawrestricting-access-to-lawyer-would-be-crushing-blow-for-justice/
26
CCPR General Comment No.32 https://undocs.org/CCPR/C/GC/32
27
HRC, Concluding observations on Georgia, CCPR/C/79/Add.75, para. 27, available at bit.ly/20caB7i; HRC, Concluding
observations on the Netherlands, CCPR/C/NLD/CO/4, para. 11, available at www.refworld.org/docid/4aa7aa642.html
28
Code of Criminal Procedure of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2015) as referenced in the joint submission to the Human Rights
Committee from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Impact Iran, Human Rights
Activists in Iran, 2020,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_ICS_IRN_42313_E.pdf
29
The former CCP had conditioned the presence of a lawyer at the investigative stage on the permission of the judge in cases
with a “confidential” aspect, cases where the presence of a party other than defendant would “corrupt” proceedings as determined
by the judge, and in national security cases; See the March 17, 2017 report of the UN Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, on fair
trial in Iran (https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/34/65)
30
“Iranian Lawyers Criticize Proposal to Deprive Defendants of Right to Choose Counsel,” Human Rights Activists in Iran, June
6, 2018 (https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3443)
3