IRAN* The Islamic Republic of Iran, with a population of ...

IRAN
Opposition groups continued to question the legitimacy of the special clerical court
system. The court is headed by a scholar in Islamic law and is capable of ruling on
legal matters through independent interpretation of Islamic legal sources. Clerical
courts, which investigate alleged offenses and crimes by clerics and which the
supreme leader directly oversees, are not provided for in the constitution, and they
operated outside the domain of the judiciary. According to a 2007 AI report,
defendants could be represented only by court-nominated clerics who are not
required to be qualified lawyers. According to the AI report, in some cases a
defendant was unable to find a cleric willing to act as defense counsel and was
tried without legal representation. Critics alleged that clerical courts were used to
prosecute clerics for expressing controversial ideas and for participating in
activities outside the sphere of religion, such as journalism or reformist political
activities.
On December 6, the special clerical court summoned Mohammad Mehman Navaz,
a supporter of Ayatollah Boroujerdi (see section 1.d.).
Political Prisoners and Detainees
Statistics regarding the number of citizens imprisoned for their political beliefs
were not available, but human rights activists estimated the number in the
hundreds. Approximately 500 democracy activists and journalists were in
detention in Evin Prison alone at year's end. According to opposition press reports,
the government arrested, convicted, and executed persons on questionable criminal
charges, including drug trafficking, when their actual offenses were reportedly
political. The government charged members of religious minorities and others with
crimes such as "confronting the regime" and apostasy and followed the same trial
procedures as in cases of threats to national security. During the year the
government rounded up students, journalists, lawyers, and political activists to
silence them or prevent them from organizing protests.
Authorities occasionally gave political prisoners suspended sentences or released
them for short or extended furloughs prior to completion of their sentences, but
they could order them to return to prison at any time. Suspended sentences often
were used to silence and intimidate individuals. The government also controlled
political activists by temporarily suspending baseless court proceedings against
them and allowing authorities to rearrest them at any time, and it attempted to
intimidate activists by calling them in repeatedly for questioning. The government
issued travel bans on former political prisoners; for instance, authorities continued
to prevent former political prisoner Siamak Pourzand from leaving the country to
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