The Islamic Republic of Iran was founded after the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revolution, and its legal code is based on Islamic law or sharia, although many aspects of civil law have been retained, and it is integrated into a civil law legal system. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, the judiciary in Iran "is an independent power". The entire legal system—"from the Supreme Court to regional courts, all the way down to local and revolutionary courts"—is under the purview of the Ministry of Justice, but in addition to a Minister of Justice and head of the Supreme Court, there is also a separate appointed Head of the Judiciary.Abrahamian, Ervand, History of Modern Iran, Cambridge U.P., 2008, p.177 Parliamentary bills pertaining to the constitution are vetted by the Council of Guardians.

The original nationwide judicial system in Iran was implemented and established by Abdolhossein Teymourtash under Reza Shah, with further changes during the second Pahlavi era.

History

Structure of the judicial system

The 1979 Constitution of the Islamic Republic called for the judiciary to be "an independent power," and charges it with "investigating and passing judgement on grievances; ... supervising the proper enforcement of laws; ... uncovering crimes; prosecuting, punishing, and chastising criminals;" taking "suitable measures" to prevent crime and reform criminals.

The Head of the Judiciary, also known in English as 'Chief Justice of Iran', is to be a "just Mujtahid" appointed by the Supreme Leader and serve for "a period of five years." He is responsible for the "establishment of the organizational structure" of the judicial system; "drafting judiciary bills" for Parliament; hiring, firing, promoting, and assigning judges. Judges cannot be dismissed without a trial.

Judicial authority is constitutionally vested in the Supreme Court and the four-member High Council of the Judiciary, according to Hunt Janin and Andre Kahlmeyer.Janin, Hunt and Andre Kahlmeyer, Islamic Law, McFarland and Company, 2007, p.142

According to Article 160 of the Constitution: The Minister of Justice owes responsibility in all matters concerning the relationship between the judiciary, on the one hand, and the executive and legislative branches, on the other hand. ... The Head of the Judiciary may delegate full authority to the Minister of Justice in financial and administrative areas and for employment of personnel other than judges. The Minister is to be chosen by the President from a list of candidates proposed by the Head of the Judiciary. The Head of the Supreme Court and Prosecutor-General are also to be "just mujtahids" "nominated" by the Head of the Judiciary "in consultation with the judges of the Supreme Court" and serving for a period of five years.

Court structure

According to Luiza Maria Gontowska, the Iranian court structure includes Revolutionary Courts, Public Courts, Courts of Peace and Supreme Courts of Cassation. There are 70 branches of the Revolutionary Courts. Public courts consist of Civil (205), Special Civil (99), First class criminal (86) and Second Class Criminal (156). Courts of Peace are divided into Ordinary courts (124), and Independent Courts of Peace (125), and Supreme Judicial Council of Iran (22).Human Rights Violations Under the Sharia'a, A Comparative Study of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Luiza Maria Gontowska, May 2005

Operation The courts of the Islamic Republic are based on an inquisitorial system, such as exists in France, rather than an adversarial system as in the United Kingdom and the United States. The judge is the arbiter and decides on the verdict. In serious cases, he is assisted by two other secondary judges, and in cases involving the death penalty, four other secondary judges. There is also a public prosecutor. However, according to Article 168 of Iran's constitution, in certain cases involving the media, a jury is allowed to be the arbiter. The judge holds absolute power. In practice, judges may be overwhelmed by cases, and not have the time to consider each case carefully. All judges are certified in Islamic and Iranian law.

Clerical courts

The rulings of the Special Clerical Court, which functions independently of the regular judicial framework and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader, are also final and cannot be appealed through the normal appeals court system, but only through an internal appeals mechanism to which the ruling judge must agree. Princeton Professor Mirjam Künkler writes "It is not difficult to see how the SCC, given its legal status outside any accountable, transparent check by a governmental office other than the Office of the Supreme Leader, could transform into the Supreme Leaders’ primary instrument to discipline and prosecute dissident clerics."See Mirjam Künkler: "The Special Courts of the Clergy and the Repression of Dissident Clergy in Iran." https://ssrn.com/abstract=1505542 The Special Clerical Court handles crimes allegedly committed by clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people.

Revolutionary courts Islamic Revolutionary Courts that try certain categories of offenses, including crimes against national security, narcotics smuggling, and acts that are said to undermine the Islamic Republic.

Shortly after the overthrow of the monarchy, Revolutionary Tribunals were set up in the major towns, with two courts in the capital of Tehran - one each in the prison of Qasr and Evin, and one traveling tribunal for Hojjat al-Islam Sadegh Khalkhali, who was known for his stiff sentences (often execution). The courts presiding judges were clerics appointed by Khomeini himself. The decisions rendered by the Revolutionary courts initially were final and could not be appealed, and so bypassed what remained of the Justice Ministry and its appeal system. In 1989, a law was passed allowing an appeal to be made to the Supreme Court of Cassation. If the appeal was recognized, then the case would be given a retrial. Many Revolutionary Court judges today are not clerics however.

At least at first, the revolutionary courts differed from standard Western law courts by limiting trials to a few hours, sometimes minutes. Defendants could be found guilty on the basis of 'popular repute.' The concept of defense attorney was dismissed as a 'Western absurdity.' A charge that was widely applied against defendants but unfamiliar to some was 'sowing corruption on earth' (mofsed-e-filarz). This covered a variety of offenses - "'insulting Islam and the clergy,' 'opposing the Islamic Revolution,' 'supporting the Pahlavis,' and 'undermining Iran's independence' by helping the 1953 coup and giving capitulatory privileges to the imperial powers".Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions by Ervand Abrahamian, University of California Press, 1999, p.125 Between 1979-1989, the Revolutionary Courts ordered the execution of at least 10,000 political prisoners, belonging to anti-revolutionary opposition groups, and sentenced others to death for crimes such as drug trafficking, adultery, sodomy, kidnapping, "disruption of the public order", and "terrorism". It is hard to know how many actual political prisoners were executed, because often of those executed for political crimes were also accused of "drug trafficking" or "sodomy".

In 1982, with continuous military coup threats, the Military Revolutionary Court was created.

By the 1990s, political executions became less common, but not unheard of, and by the 21st century are rare, carried out mainly in cases of "armed" or "riot-related" regime opposition. Belonging to an anti-regime "armed" opposition group is could also result in a death sentence. In recent years, the Revolutionary Courts operate more like normal courts, although they are still considered politically allied with the Supreme Leader rather than the regular, public courts which are neutral. Oftentimes, Revolutionary courts exist side by side with public courts. They also still try political and national security cases, as well as drug trafficking, smuggling, and "disturbance of the public order".

Prison system Iran's prison system was "centralized and drastically expanded" by the Islamic Republic. Under the Shah prisons had been administered separately by SAVAK, the urban police, and the gendarmerie. The new regime entrusted their management "to a supervisory council of three clerics".Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions by Ervand Abrahamian, University of California Press, 1999, p.134-5

In Tehran, all four prisons where political dissidents were kept were expanded. Evin was enlarged "with two new blocks containing six wards and six hundred solitary cells" so it could accommodate "an additional 6,000 inmates". Qezel Hesar was also expanded. Construction of the new Gohar Dasht prison had been started under the shah, it "was completed with hundreds of solitary cells and large wards housing more than 8,000 inmates".

Despite all this new capacity, Iran's prisons "were seriously overcrowded by 1983". Komiteh prison, built for 500, had 1,500 inmates; Evin Prison, built for 1,200, had 15,000; Qezel Hesar, built for 10,000, had 15,000; and Gohar Dasht prison, built for 8,000, had 16,000. Meanwhile, "Qasr, which had housed 1,500, in 1978, had more than 6,000".Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, (1999), p.135-6

At least for political prisoners prison life was considerably harsher in the Islamic Republic than under the Pahlavis according to those who had tasted both. "One who survived both writes that four months under [warden] Asadollah Ladjevardi took the toll of four years under SAVAK.source: Anonymous "Prison and Imprisonment", Mojahed, 174-256 (20 October 1983-8 August 1985) Political prisoners were "incessantly bombarded with propaganda from all sides ... radio and closed-circuit television ... loudspeakers blaring into all cells even into solitary cells and 'the coffins' [where some prisoners were kept] ... ideological sessions." Any reading material of a secular nature such as Western novelists, or even religious material that didn't agree ideologically with the Islamic Republic such as work by Ali Shariati was banned. At least in Evin prison the Persian Nowruz celebration was banned. In the prison literature of the Pahlavi era, the recurring words had been 'boredom' and 'monotony.' In that of the Islamic Republic, they were 'fear', 'death', 'terror', 'horror,' and most frequent of all 'nightmare' (kabos)".Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions (1999), p.135-6, 167, 169 By the 2000s prison life was considerably better, although torture was still carried out on political inmates (even allegedly criminals). But after the controversial 2009 elections, the situation for political prisoners has reportedly deteriorated.

Although classical Sharia law does not mention imprisonment, prisons are widely used in Iran. Typically, it would be given as a discretionary punishment from the civil code. In other cases, the defendant receives a sentence of exile, which would be carried out in a prison.

In 2005, with the prison capacity of 80,000, the actual number of prisoners was close to 160,000 people. Statistics released in 2014 indicated that Iran then had 210,000 prisoners.Minister alarmed by high number of prisoners in Iran - Mohabat News, 27 Nov. 2015 In June 2016, Iran has 228,000 prisoners, according to Iran's Minister of Justice Mostafa Pourmohammadi.International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran - facebook post

World Prison Brief provides statistics from 2018 that help size up the prisons in Iran. As of 2014, Iran had 253 prisons. As of 2018, 240,000 prisoners occupied those 253 prisons. The official occupancy level of the prisons in Iran is 150,000. Iran is currently 153% overcrowded. Out of every 100,000 people in Iran, 294 of them are incarcerated.US Department of State. (2018). Iran Human Rights Report. Retrieved April 17, 2019, from