Protests Against Iran's Judiciary's Approved List of '20 Trusted' Lawyers for Political Cases

A lawyer reported that the judiciary announced a list of 20 'trusted' lawyers for representing political and security cases in Tehran, while informing some lawyers that they 'absolutely do not have the right to accept representation' in these cases. While judiciary officials stated that this list pertains only to the 'preliminary investigation phase (interrogation)', some lawyers claim that the courts have extended this list to all stages of the trial. Amir Reisiyaan, a lawyer, tweeted on Sunday, June 3, that the head of the judiciary announced the list of 20 'trusted' lawyers for political and security cases in Tehran. According to Reisiyaan, the selection of these 20 lawyers was made while there are two thousand lawyers registered with the Bar Association. This lawyer also reported that he and some other lawyers were verbally informed that they 'absolutely do not have the right to accept representation in political and security cases' because their names are not on this list of 20. Ali Mojtahedzadeh, another lawyer, also protested this action by the judiciary on his Twitter, stating: 'There has been a lot of talk about justice and security courts, and with the announcement of the list of approved lawyers by the head of the judiciary and the exclusion of non-approved lawyers, the argument is complete. I really do not know whether non-approved lawyers had the right to participate in the military courts of the Shah and in show trials or not.' The announcement of this list of 20 lawyers was based on Article 48 of the new Iranian Criminal Procedure Code, which has been in effect since July 2015. According to this article, in 'crimes against internal and external security of the country... in the preliminary investigation phase, the parties to the dispute select their lawyer or lawyers from among the official lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary.' The Bar Association had previously requested the removal of the clause of Article 48 in a letter to the head of the judiciary. Meanwhile, Masoud Ahmadian, a lawyer, suggested in a note to the ISNA news agency that the head of the judiciary should address the existing flaw in this law by introducing all lawyers as 'trusted lawyers.' Some lawyers, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, had previously stated that the judiciary has extended this law 'to trial courts, revolutionary courts, and even appellate courts.' However, Gholamhossein Esmaeili, the head of the Tehran judiciary, stated that the selection of 'trusted lawyers of the judiciary' is only for the preliminary investigation stages, where previously 'no lawyer is accepted at all.' Esmaeili emphasized that 'there are no restrictions in the stages of case handling in the prosecution offices from the time the indictment is issued.' According to a procedure deemed 'illegal' by lawyers, political and civil activists and others detained by the Ministry of Intelligence, the IRGC Intelligence Organization, the judiciary's security protection, and other security agencies do not have access to a lawyer during their temporary detention and interrogation. International organizations and human rights defenders have repeatedly accused the Iranian judiciary of conducting non-transparent and unfair trials, a criticism that is denied by the judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic.