Ad-hoc revolutionary tribunals and special religious courts, established in the aftermath of the
revolution, are still in place today in the Islamic Republic of Iran.34 The Law on Formation of
General and Revolutionary Courts was adopted in 1994,35 subsequently amended in 2002.36 The
Code of Criminal Procedure for General and Revolutionary Courts was enacted in 1999.37
Despite its trial period stipulated for three years, it remained in place until the entry into force of
the new Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) in 2015.38 Revolutionary courts are among Iran’s
criminal courts listed under Article 294 of the new CCP (2015) and, according to Article 297, are
to be established in the capital of each of the state’s provinces.39 Revolutionary courts have
jurisdiction over crimes against national and external security, moharebeh (“enmity against
God”), efsad-e fel-arz (“corruption on earth”), baghi (“armed rebellion against the state”),40
“gathering and colluding against the Islamic Republic”, armed activities, arson and “destruction
and plunder of resources with the purpose of opposing the system”, “insulting the founder of the
Islamic Republic and the Supreme Leader”, all smuggling of restricted items and drug-related
offences and other offences whose investigation fall under the revolutionary court’s
jurisdiction.41
In 2018, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
stated that the pattern of reported violations related to due process and fair trial in the country
often occurred within the context of revolutionary courts,42 which reportedly issue the most death
sentences.43 Similarly, NGO reports seem to suggest that trials before revolutionary courts
disproportionately target civil rights activists and members of religious minorities such as the
34
NGO 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
35
The Law on Formation of General and Revolutionary Courts, 13 July 1994, available at rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/90416
36
Amendments to the Law on Formation of General and Revolutionary Courts, 3 November 2002, available at
rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/93837
37
The Code of Criminal Procedure for General and Revolutionary Courts, 19 September 1999, available at
rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/93219
38
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF
39
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/amendments-to-the-islamic-republic-of-irans-code-of-criminalprocedure-part-1/
40
Defined under Articles 279 to 285 and Articles 286 to 288 of the Islamic Penal Code (2013), Iran Human Rights
Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/
41
Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF
42
https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/37/68
43
See https://iranhr.net/en/articles/2839/
5