Power and control over people’s lives: the Judiciary in Iran
There are two judicial systems in Iran, the civil and the revolutionary. Both are Islamic (all secular law was abolished in 1982) and come under the unelected head of the judiciary – accountable to the Supreme Leader.
The civil courts deal with criminal, commercial, and family laws; the revolutionary courts with perceived threats to the Islamic regime. Here there are arbitrary arrests and usually defendants have no access to lawyers or a right of appeal. Charges can be as sweeping as ‘blasphemy against God’ or ‘insulting Islam’.
This court system is frightening for all Iranians, but journalists and trade unionists have to be especially wary – as do Christians. For it is to these courts they are brought when arrested by the authorities. And it is in these courts that believers from Muslim backgrounds can be charged with apostasy, which carries the death sentence for men, and live imprisonment for women. Also believers can be falsely accused of supporting foreign Christian powers.
- Pray for the head of the judiciary and all the judges to love justice and mercy
- That prisoners will have fair trials
- For officials and prisoners to hear the Gospel
Source: Iran 30
