Six judges accused of leading role in Iranian crackdown on free speech

The Guardian, 31 July 2014 – Iran ’s crackdown on journalists and political activists is being spearheaded by a small group of judges under the influence of the country’s intelligence and security apparatus, according to human rights organizations.
Four judges with Iran ’s revolutionary court and two appeal judges have led numerous court sessions that activists say did not conform to fair trial principles according to Iran ’s constitution, and are in breach of international treaties to which Tehran is a signatory.
The six judges are accused of losing their judicial impartiality and overseeing miscarriages of justice in trials in which scores of journalists, lawyers, political activists and members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities have been condemned to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution.
Those accused are judges Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghiseh, former justices Yahya Pirabbasi and Hassan Zareh Dehnavi (known as judge Haddad), and appeal judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar.
According to several former prisoners who spoke to the Guardian, and testimonies received by human rights groups, common violations by the judges include holding trials behind closed doors, lasting only a few minutes and without essential legal procedures, intimidating defendants, breaching judicial independence by acting as prosecutors themselves and depriving prisoners of access to lawyers.
Human rights activists have also pointed fingers at other judiciary officials in Iran in recent years, accusing them of rights violations, including the appeal judge Movahed, the Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi and his predecessor Saeed Mortazavi.