Human rights lawyers in Iran are speaking out against a list released by the judiciary designating 20 state-approved lawyers to exclusively represent detainees held on politically motivated charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cA number of lawyers have said they are ready to hold a protest sit-in if necessary,\u201d prominent defense attorney\u00a0Nasrin Sotoudeh<\/a>\u00a0told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on June 4, 2018.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s\u00a0Constitution<\/a>\u00a0sets no limits or conditions on the right to legal counsel and Article 35 states, \u201cBoth parties to a lawsuit have the right in all courts of law to select an attorney, and if they are unable to do so, arrangements must be made to provide them with legal counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Article 48 of\u00a0Iran\u2019s Criminal Procedures Regulations<\/a>, people also have the right to ask for and have a meeting with a lawyer as soon as they are detained.<\/p>\n However, the \u201cNote to Article 48\u201d makes exceptions: \u201cIn cases of crimes against internal or external security\u2026during the investigation phase, the parties to the dispute are to select their attorneys from a list approved by the head of the judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n Without mentioning names, Sotoudeh, who was\u00a0imprisoned<\/a>\u00a0for three years in Iran for representing activists and minorities held on politically motivated charges, said some of the lawyers on the state-approved list have vowed to refuse to cooperate with the judiciary.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past, political suspects had a limited right to defend themselves and lawyers could take up their cases and carry out their professional duties despite all the dangers they faced, but now even that limited right is being completely eliminated,\u201d Sotoudeh said.<\/p>\n On the other hand, reformist attorney Ali Mojtahedzade pointed out in a\u00a0tweet<\/a>\u00a0on June 4 that one of the state-approved lawyers is Abdolreza Mohabbati, who acted as assistant prosecutor in several show trials of political activists accused of challenging the result of Iran\u2019s 2009 presidential election.<\/p>\n \u201cThis action by the judiciary chief [Sadegh Larijani], which is based on Article 48 of the\u00a0Criminal Procedures Regulations<\/a>, is intrinsically against Article 35 of the\u00a0Constitution<\/a>,\u00a0which gives suspects the right to select a lawyer,\u201d Sotoudeh said.<\/p>\n In January 2018, judicial offices in several Iranian cities received state-approved\u00a0lists<\/a>\u00a0of lawyers allowed by the judicial branch to take on cases involving national security charges at the preliminary investigation stage.<\/p>\n On June 2, human rights lawyer Amir Raeisian criticized the list in a\u00a0tweet.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe important fact about the judiciary\u2019s list is that it does not include any women lawyers or any senior members of the Iranian Bar Association and human rights lawyers,\u201d Raeisian wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of my colleagues and I have been verbally told that we absolutely cannot accept political and security cases because we are not among the 20 listed lawyers\u2014not even when the case goes to trial,\u201d he added. \u201cBut this makes no sense because the Note to Article 48 is applicable for the investigation stage.\u201d<\/p>\n