Guardian Council Approves Law Prohibiting Torture and Coerced Confessions

The Guardian Council, a hardline body of the Islamic Republic, has approved a law that prohibits the police from using torture to obtain confessions from suspected criminals. The Guardian Council, composed of 12 clerics with the authority to approve or reject laws passed by the parliament, had previously rejected similar laws aimed at protecting prisoners from torture in detention centers. The anti-torture law was proposed in parliament after Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the head of Iran's judiciary, declared that torture and coercion for obtaining confessions are prohibited. Ayatollah Shahroudi also stated that prisoners cannot be denied the right to access a defense attorney and that confessions must be written and confirmed by the accused. Unlike previous parliamentary bills concerning prisoner protection, this time the spokesman for the Guardian Council announced that the new law does not conflict with Islamic law or the Iranian constitution.