framework fall short to protect the accused person’s right to access legal counsel in the pre-trial
phase.
In many reported cases, especially national security cases, defendants have reported seeing their
lawyer for the first time on their day of trial. 8 9 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. 10 11 12 Yet, the Human Rights
Committee has explicitly stipulated that the accused should be granted prompt access to legal
counsel,13 including during the pre-trial phase.14 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 of financial corruption.15 16 Such amendment would further restrict access to
legal counsel during the investigation phase.
With regard to the right to access legal counsel of one’s choosing, a Note to Article 48 of the
2015 CCP,17 specifies that individuals facing charges for certain offences, including those
relating to national security and organized crime, 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.18 In 2018, the Judiciary published the list of approved lawyers
(including only 20 names for Tehran). However, many of the lawyers named are reportedly close
to the security bodies or had been solicited for payments of money to appear on the list,
8
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
9
HRW <https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/24/iran-detainees-denied-fair-legal-representation>
10
HRANA <https://www.en-hrana.org/arash-sadegh-golrokh-iraeis-lawyers-access-cases
11
HRANA <https://www.en-hrana.org/political-prisoner-denied-access-to-an-attorney>
12
HRANA <https://www.en-hrana.org/court-prevents-lawyer-accessing-files-five-sunni-prisoners>
13
CCPR General Comment No.32 <https://undocs.org/CCPR/C/GC/32>
14
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
15
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, https://www.iranrights.org/newsletter/issue/99
16
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/
17
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
18
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)
2