Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – A leading member of one of Iran’s legal associations says more than 100 lawyers from across the country have been summoned to Tehran’s security court, even though there is no mention of any charges against them.
Adel Moghaddas, a member of the board of directors of the Bushehr Bar Association, said on May 25 that the summons began arriving last month and they came “without mention of any charges,” saying it appears the move is a pressure tactic to keep lawyers from supporting protests that have rocked the country for months.
Abuzar Nasrallah, one of the lawyers to receive a summons, said the proceedings are mostly conducted by the security court located in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison with no specific charges stated.
Lawyers are being urged during the hearings to sign a prewritten “commitment letter” pledging adherence to the law as a condition for their release on bail, he said.
Nasrallah said the court confronted him with posts from his social media account, which he said in no way broke the law. He said that he was dedicated to his legal oath and therefore questioned why the court wanted a commitment, especially if no crime had been committed.
Nasrallah said the head of the security court issued him a warning “that while there was currently no intention to arrest lawyers, those who refused to sign the commitment may find their cases processed, and subsequent summons may follow.”
The commitment letter contains an “expression of regret” for nationwide protests and a strategy to limit contact with “networks outside the country, anti-revolutionary elements,” according to Mohammad Hadi Jaafarpour, a member of the Fars Lawyers Association and one of the lawyers who was summoned.
He stated that many lawyers refused to sign this part of the commitment but instead chose to acknowledge respect for the law and adherence to legal behavior.
The unprecedented summoning of lawyers has been attributed to Behrouz Hasani Etemad, a former lawyer now representing the prosecution in numerous protester cases.
His most notable case to date involved Mohsen Shakari, the first protester to be executed after Iran’s recent nationwide protests, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody last September.
Since Amini’s death, at least 129 lawyers have faced “judicial encounters,” according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA). This includes both arrests and summonses for a variety of reasons, ranging from practicing their profession to expressing views on social media.
The HRA said that 55 lawyers have been arrested, 70 have been summoned, and numerous others have faced judicial and security confrontations since the protests began. However, the recent wave of summonings to sign a “commitment” and express regret for the protests suggests an escalation in the crackdown on the legal profession.
The Islamic republic’s judiciary has been restricting access to protester cases, often only accepting representation from lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary. However, independent lawyers have sometimes managed to overturn heavy sentences, like execution, during the appeal stage.
The escalating number of lawyers being summoned to the Tehran Security Court has raised alarm bells, especially considering the increased risk of executing more protesters without access to independent and fair representation.
Officials have launched a brutal crackdown amid the wave of unrest sparked by Amini’s death in September while in police custody for an alleged infraction of the country’s mandatory hijab law.
Iran’s judiciary, at the urging of senior leaders, has taken a hard-line stance against demonstrators, executing at least seven protesters, including three on May 19. Several others currently wait on death row for their sentences to be carried out.
Amnesty International said in a report earlier this month that Iran drove a global spike in executions last year with 576, almost double the previous year.
