In August 2018, Iranian authorities issued a directive concerning special tribunals for cases of economic corruption, which shortened the timeframes for appealing non-capital verdicts issued by such tribunals, and made all non-capital verdicts unappealable.49 50 This legal change undermines defendants' right to appeal a ruling by doing away with certain procedures, including in-person trial sessions for appeals proceedings as under Article 450 of the CCP. Appeals can now be undertaken without a hearing, in the absence of the convict and of his or her lawyer. In 2019, reported cases have shown that individuals have been adjudicated without trial sessions on the basis of this governmental directive for which the court of first instance’s verdict has been upheld.515253 Reports also indicated that defendants are routinely denied effective appeals proceedings in other cases as well.54 55 56 57 7. The State party should remove the mahdoor-ol-dam (deserving of death) definition, applied to victims, so as to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and brought to justice for their crimes In the old version of the Islamic Penal Code (1991), Article 295 specified mahdoor-ol-dam to define someone that is “deserving of death”. The revised Islamic Penal Code of 2013 includes mahdoor-ol-dam as well under Article 302, which provides for the crimes exempt from qesas (retribution in kind).58 There are no readily available official report that might indicate that the definition of mahdoor-ol-dam is still being actively used in criminal proceedings, however, information gathered show that mahdoor-ol-dam can still be invoked. For example, in 2016, the Supreme Court discussed a case where the defendant claimed that he committed murder because they believed the victim was mahdoor-ol-dam. The Supreme Court upheld the claim.59 Recommendation Status: This recommendation has NOT been implemented. 49 See ABC’s “The Iran Judiciary's Illegal Directive on Financial Corruption: A Legal Analysis from ABC” (https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3448). Vahid Mazlumin and Mohammad Esmail Qasemi, both put to death in November 2018, were sentenced by such special tribunals. https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/-8336/vahid-mazlumin ; https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/-8335/mohammad-esmail-qasemi 50 Youth Journalism Club, July 21, 2019 <https://www.yjc.ir/fa/news/7009151> 51 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 52 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 53 See Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, “Judiciary's New Approach to Appeals Trials is Against the Law,” August 22, 2019 (https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3619) 54 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, 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 55 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center <https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/71725/hashem-shabaninejad-amuri> 56 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center <https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/74843/reza-hosseini> 57 Abdorrahman Boroumand Center <https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/-7770/mohsen-nasiri> 58 Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2013), original version, https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/845048 59 https://www.isna.ir/news/95092213162/ 6