a Note in Article 48 of the 2015 CCP, 6 specifies that individuals facing charges for certain
offences, including those relating to national security and organized crime, must select legal
counsel from a limited list of lawyers approved and announced by the Head of the Judiciary
at the phase of preliminary investigations. 7 Consequently, the right to legal assistance of
one’s choosing in cases related to national security and organized crime is particularly
limited. For instance, in 2018, the Judiciary published the list of approved lawyers, which
included only 20 names for Tehran. Many of the lawyers listed are reportedly close to the
security bodies or paid to appear on the list, threatening due process and undermining the
independence and neutrality of the Judiciary. 8 Additionally, although the CCP guarantees the
right to free legal assistance for those without adequate financial resources, the applicability
of this right is differentiated between the pre-trial and trial phases.9 For instance, the CCP
does not ensure access to free legal assistance during the investigation phase in cases where
the accused faces charges other than those punishable by severe punishments, such as the
death penalty or life imprisonment. As a consequence, safeguards provided in the Iranian
legal framework fail to protect the accused person’s right to access legal counsel in the pretrial phase in cases not punishable by severe punishments. 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, terrorism or financial corruption.10 11 Such amendment would further
restrict access to legal counsel during the investigation phase. Article 14 of the ICCPR
protects the right “to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense and
to communicate with counsel of his own choosing”. Additionally, the Human Rights
Committee has explicitly stipulated that the accused should be granted prompt access to legal
counsel,12 including during the pre-trial phase.13
Following an urgent appeal sent by UN Special Procedures on 29 October 2009, the
Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran informed by letter, dated 7 October 2010, that
Messrs. Yousef Laftepour, Damir Mahavi, Ahmad Savaedi, Maher Mahavi, Valid Nisi,
Majed Fowadi were sentenced to five year’s imprisonment, while Mr. Ali Savaed was
6
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
7 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)
8 “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)
9 Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF
10 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/newsletter/issue/99
11 www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/0379/2019/en/ ; https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/iran-proposedlaw-restricting-access-to-lawyer-would-be-crushing-blow-for-justice/
12 UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), General comment no. 32, Article 14, Right to equality before courts and tribunals
and to fair trial, 23 August 2007, CCPR/C/GC/32, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/478b2b2f2.html
< https://www.refworld.org/docid/478b2b2f2.html>
13 Human Rights Committee, 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
2