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Legal Defense Under Siege by the Iranian Judiciary – (24 August 2011) The Iranian Central Bar Association should come to the aid of embattled lawyers subjected to harassment, unfounded criminal charges, or prison sentences for defending prisoners of conscience and advocating for human rights, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran\u00a0said today.<\/p>\n
The International Bar Association and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers should also intervene to defend Iranian lawyers facing persecution, added the Campaign.
\nShirin Ebadi, leading human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, provided the Campaign with a list of 42 lawyers who have faced government persecution since June 2009. In the wake of the government\u2019s attack on lawyers, the Iranian Central Bar Association, which represents Tehran, where the majority of these persecuted lawyers practice, has yet to come to the defense of its members.
\n“Every profession has a guild to protect its members,\u201d Ebadi told the Campaign. \u201cWhen a film actor is detained, the Cinema Union will at least issue one or two statements objecting to the arrest; or when a reporter or a writer is arrested, their professional organization will object.\u201d
\n\u201cBut how is it that over the past two years, when so many lawyers faced problems because of their professional activities, no organization has come to their defense?\u201d said Ebadi. \u201cNow the question is what is the use of this [Central] Bar Association? One of the main responsibilities of the association is to oversee the performance of lawyers and to protect them legally. But lawyers are the least protected professional group in Iran.”
\nThe Iranian Central Bar Association\u2019s failure to protest the treatment of its members and other persecuted lawyers can be attributed in part to the organization\u2019s lack of full independence.
\nAfter the 1979 Revolution, authorities suspended the existing bar association for nearly 18 years and appointed a judicial representative to oversee the bar.
\n\u201cDuring that time, many lawyers were disbarred in the name of ‘cleansing’ [the Bar Association]\u201d Ebadi told the Campaign. \u201cAnd when they were sure that the remaining lawyers were going to \u2018fall in line,\u2019 orders to re-open the bar association were issued. But for further assurance, they passed a law that in practice eliminated the association’s independence.\u201d
\nThe Law on Attorney Qualifications, enacted in 1997, gives the Judiciary authority to vet and exclude candidates from membership in the Bar Association\u2019s Board of Directors.\u00a0 While the Bar\u2019s members technically elect the board every two years, the Judiciary\u2019s Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges can disqualify any candidate it sees as unfit. Article 4(1) of the law says:
\n\u201cThe Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges is the authority responsible for determining the qualifications of candidates for the [Bar Association\u2019s] Board of Directors and is obligated to obtain information on the background of candidates from relevant authorities, within a maximum period of two months, to evaluate their qualifications and announce their decision.\u00a0 Relevant authorities who have background information about the candidate are required to provide it.\u201d
\nThe Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges has repeatedly barred human rights lawyers including Shirin Ebadi, Abdolfatah Soltani, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Farideh Gheyrat and Nemat Ahmadi from running for and sitting on the board of the Iranian Central Bar Association.
\nIn practice, the Iranian Judiciary effectively defers to the Ministry of Intelligence, which is a \u201crelevant authority\u201d under the Law on Attorney Qualifications that determines who is able to govern the Bar Association. The Ministry, which has increasingly tightened its grip on the Judiciary since June 2009, has a long track record of targeting government critics and activists.
\nAccording to the website of the Iranian Bar Association Union, an umbrella organization that includes the Central Bar Association, the majority of bar members object to the Judiciary\u2019s control over their board of directors. Nonetheless, the Judiciary\u2019s control, and Ministry of Intelligence\u2019s de facto proxy control, over the Bar has resulted in a passive Board of Directors and a Central Bar Association that has failed to defend lawyers who have come under government attack.
\nNearly all of the 42 lawyers named in Ebadi\u2019s list have represented prisoners of conscience and have come under government attack due to their advocacy on behalf of their clients and their outspoken promotion of human rights and rule of law in Iran. Of the 42 lawyers, 32 have been subjected to judicial prosecutions, and 10 have been subjected to official persecution. Of the 32 prosecuted lawyers, 8 are currently in prison, 2 have completed their prison terms another 21 are awaiting their final sentences, and one who was detained and subsequently charges were dropped against him.
\n\u201cThe Judiciary has essentially criminalized human rights-based representation,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the Campaign. \u201cThe legal defense community is being attacked and purged of anyone willing to represent prisoners of conscience. The point is to intimidate and dissuade Iranian lawyers from taking these cases.\u201d
\nOn 9 January 2011, Nasrin Sotoudeh, defense attorney for several activists and political detainees, received 11 years in prison and a 20-year ban on practicing law and traveling outside Iran on charges of \u201cacting against national security\u201d and \u201cpropaganda against the regime.\u201d She also received a $50 fine for not adhering to Islamic dress code in a videotaped speech.\u00a0Sotoudeh, mother of two young children, has gone on hunger strike multiple times to protest her illegal detainment and treatment in prison.
\nOn 9 May 2011, Branch 54 of the Appeals Court in Tehran sentenced Mohammad Seifzadeh, co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran who represented numerous post-election detainees, to two years in prison and a ten-year ban on practicing law for \u201cacting against national security\u201d by \u201cestablishing the Defenders of Human Rights Center.\u201d Seifzadeh has been in government custody since 11 April 2011.
\nMohammad Oliaifar, of the Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners in Iran, served a one-year prison sentence on the charge of \u201cpropagating against the regime,\u201d primarily for conducting interviews with international media outlets regarding the case of one of his clients, a juvenile facing execution. He was released in April 2011.
\nJavid Houtan Kiyan, the court-appointed lawyer for high profile defendant Sakineh Ashtiani, a women sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, was arrested on 10 October 2011. He later received an eleven-year prison sentence on charges of \u201cacting against national security\u201d after he appeared in a seemingly coerced televised confession.
\nIn June 2011 the International Bar Association (IBA), of which the Iranian Central Bar Association is a member, urged for the release of Javid Houtan Kiyan. Two years earlier, in July 2009, the IBA also expressed concern in a statement that, effectively, \u201cbar associations in Iran are under the control of the Judiciary.\u201d Martin Solc, Co-Chair of the IBA\u2019s Human Rights Institute, said Iran is violating \u201cthe United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers by fundamentally disregarding the imperative to have an independent legal profession and by subjecting Iranian lawyers to ultimate control of the Judiciary.\u201d
\nThe Judiciary\u2019s control over the Bar Association is also a violation of Iran\u2019s legal obligation to respect freedom of association guaranteed by article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
\n\u201cThe Central Bar Association has been shamefully silent as the Judiciary throws their colleagues in prison for the simple act of advocating for human rights and defending their clients,\u201d said Ghaemi.
\n\u201cIt is time for the Bar to break through the Judiciary\u2019s control and come to the aid of its members. The International Bar Association and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers should also support the Iranian Central Bar Association and intervene in Iran\u2019s attack on lawyers.\u201d
\nFor a full list of persectued lawyers, please click on the following links:<\/p>\n
List of 32 Prosecuted Lawyers<\/p>\n
List of 10 Persecuted Lawyers<\/p>\n
Listen to the Campaign’s Weekly Iran Rights Podcast<\/p>\n
For the latest human rights developments in Iran visit the Campaign\u2019s website<\/p>\n
For interviews or more information:<\/p>\n
Hadi Ghaemi, in New York: +1 917-669-5996
\nAaron Rhodes, in Hamburg: +49 170-323-8314<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Legal Defense Under Siege by the Iranian Judiciary – (24 August 2011) The Iranian Central Bar Association should come to the aid of embattled lawyers subjected to harassment, unfounded criminal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}