Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Thursday urged Iran to end restrictions that prevent access to lawyers for those charged with national security crimes. According to the rights group, there have been several instances [HRW report] of people charged with political or national security crimes being denied access to independent legal counsel during the investigative process or their being forced to change their legal representation by judiciary officials. This report comes nine months after the implementation of a new criminal procedure law in the country, which stated that detainees could choose a lawyer while being investigated. Under the code, the denial of access to a legal defense would nullify all information obtained during the investigative process. However, the new law includes an exception for those charged with national security crimes, who may be denied such access for as long as a week. Parliament also passed an amendment to the law shortly before its implementation which further restricts counsel access for such detainees, requiring them to select a lawyer only from the pool of pre-approved lawyers chosen by the judiciary head.

Much international pressure has been directed toward Iran in recent years for its legal system. In February Amnesty International (AI) released a report stating that nearly 40 years after the 1979 Revolution of Iran, the nation’s legal structures are still “deeply flawed” [JURIST report]. The report called for the adoption of legal provisions increasing accountability and oversight of law enforcement and the judiciary, urging the country to fall in line with international standards. In January AI released a report on the many juvenile offenders on death row[JURIST report] in Iran, stating that 73 executions of juvenile offenders took place between 2005 and 2015, with 160 juvenile offenders currently on death row. In November the Iranian state news service announced the sentencing [JURIST report] of Washington Post journalist to an unspecified prison term after he was convicted on charges that include espionage; he was later released.