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Iran: Mullahs’ Judiciary impasse, 12 million judicial cases in one year

NCRI – Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the mullahs’ Judiciary, said on February 27, 2008, “The trend of legal cases in the Judiciary is overwhelming. The creation of eight million judicial cases during the past year signifies a legal and judicial malady as well as a serious harm to society.” He was speaking to a gathering in the southern province of Khuzestan, discussing the problems faced by the institution under his control.

Shahroudi described the creation of eight million judicial cases in one year as a “fundamental problem,” and added, “In a country like India, with a population close to one billion, only four million judicial cases are filed annually.”

On December 18, 2007, Shahroudi also said, “It is unfortunate that currently eight million cases enter the judicial system annually, which results from more than 1,500 types of offenses outlined in Iranian legal codes.” Shahroudi stated that, in addition to these eight million cases, “currently, about four million cases are also overseen by councils formed to resolve disputes.”

Thus, according to the regime’s head of Judiciary, the number of judicial cases in Iran is close to twelve million. This means that there are 50 times more judicial cases in Iran than in India, taking into consideration differences in population.

In view of the fact that every judicial case involves at least two persons, this means that on average, an Iranian adult would face a judicial proceeding every two years. If we also assume that every Iranian family has about four members, then on average, every family is involved in more than one court case annually.

The state-run daily, Sharq, quoted Shahroudi on April 24, 2004, as saying, “The head of the Judiciary, specified the number of court cases in the country to be in the range of four to five million annually, which is unprecedented in the world.” In other words, in less than three-and-a-half years (between 2004 and 2008), the number of court cases under the religious fascism’s rule have more than doubled.

The creation of this number of cases and the cancerous bloating of the clerical judicial system is, first and foremost, indicative of the extent of the crimes, cruelty and rights abuses committed under the mullahs’ rule. In addition to hanging, stoning, torture, amputation of limbs, and other medieval punishments, the regime has found another way to instill fear in the society by entrapping Iranians in its dreadful judicial system.

What is more interesting is Shahroudi’s posture on such an extensive political, social, and humanitarian catastrophe. He refers to them as if anything but the clerical regime and its criminal leaders including him are responsible for them.

Previously, in a number of occasions, Shahroudi pretended to be critical of the judicial system. For example, in 2002, he “complained” that every year around 700-to-800-thousand people go to prisons. Moreover, in June 2004, he grumbled at a forty percent rise in the number of cases in the judicial system.

In a lame comical performance, on a weekly basis, Shahroudi also personally spoke directly with the people and “looked into” a few cases himself!

But, the reality is that Shahroudi has been the head of the mullahs’ judiciary for nearly nine years. Second to Khamenei, he is directly responsible for all the crimes committed by the system against people’s lives, rights, and properties.

Last December, when Shahroudi was again talking about the creation of eight million annual judicial cases, he also proposed his solution, which in reality would amount to nothing but further suppression and crackdown. The state-run Fars News Agency reported on December 18, 2007, “Hashemi Shahroudi noted some of the cultural problems and said, ‘Encouraging those who abide by the values and teachings of Islam, such as the Islamic Hijab, at governmental and educational institutions and offices, and depriving those from such arenas that do not consider themselves bound by such values, can be a centralist solution influential for the strengthening commitment to these values.'”

No doubt, as long as the Iranian regime remains in power, such criminal behavior would prevail. The only viable solution for the Iranian judicial system would undoubtedly come when this regime is no longer in power. And it would be replaced by a judicial system based on modern democratic and recognizable international principles of human rights and other known civilized norms.

Judicial Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 28, 2008