Iranian Parliament Approves Defendants not Entitled to Contact Lawyers for up to 20 Days

The Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee of the Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly considered the draft amendment to Article 48 of the Code of Conduct at a meeting Saturday 22 May 2019, during which the committee decided to approve a law that divides the accused into three types and groups that do not have the right to have a lawyer for their cases for up to 20 days, most notably the first group of defendants in crimes punishable by imprisonment or house arrest or in organized crimes.

“According to today’s legislation, suspects of security and economic crimes cannot be prevented from having access to a lawyer for more than 20 days, as well as organized crimes punishable by death and punishments of moharebeh crimes”, said Mohammad Ali Pour mokhtar, member of Iran’s parliament’s Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee, in an interview with the correspondent of Khaneh Mellat news agency “ ICANA”.

“The second group is those accused of crimes against internal and external security, and the third group is those accused of economic crimes, corruption and financial irregularities of one billion Iranian rials or more”, the member of Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee added.

“If a person is charged with crimes and arrested with proven documents, he would be referred to the judiciary for up to 20 days, after which he will be able to get a lawyer. After that period, all lawyers can adopt the file of the accused,” said Pour mokhtar, the representative of the cities of Bahar and Kabudarahang in 10th parliament.

Pour mokhtar pointed out that all lawyers can defend the rights of the accused, and this will not be restricted to a specific and special lawyer selected by the judiciary. “Of course, if the files contain important or highly classified documents, a lawyer would be appointed and the lawyer meets with the accused under the supervision of the judge linked to the file, and this does not mean preventing lawyering”, he added.

https://www.icana.ir/Fa/News/425372/متهمان-امنیتی-تا-20-روز-حق-دسترسی-به-وکیل-را-ندارند