A/HRC/31/69 preliminary investigation. 12 The law calls for defendants to be informed of these rights before the investigation begins and if a defendant is summoned, the right to have access to a lawyer must be mentioned in the summons. Violations of these rights or failure to communicate them to the accused will result in disciplinary action, but will not affect the admissibility of evidence obtained under these conditions.13 Article 190 of the code also states that the court must appoint a lawyer for persons accused of capital crimes or offences that carry sentences of life imprisonment if the accused fails to retain one him- or herself, but does not require court-appointed lawyers for other serious cases. 14 The Special Rapporteur also commends the Government for the adoption of article 197, which explicitly acknowledges the right of the accused to remain silent during preliminary investigations, and notes that article 60 of the code explicitly prohibits the use of coercion, obscene/derogatory language and suggestive/deceptive or irrelevant questioning. Any information gathered from the accused by the aforementioned means is considered null and void. 25. Another significant amendment to the code involves the right of appeal. Articles 428 and 570 now require that all death sentences be reviewed by the Supreme Court. This provision annuls article 32 of the Anti-Narcotics Law, which previously authorized the country’s Prosecutor General, and not the Supreme Court, to confirm death sentences for drug-related offences adjudicated by revolutionary courts. On 7 December 2015, the Supreme Court issued a ruling obliging all revolutionary courts to send death sentences for drug-related offences for review and appeal to the Supreme Court. 15 The Special Rapporteur applauds this significant improvement in view of the fact that a majority of the death sentences issued in the Islamic Republic of Iran are for drug-related offences, in contravention of international law. However, he emphasizes that the ruling must be implemented properly. 26. Despite these improvements, concern remains over provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code that exclude individuals accused of national security crimes from these protections. They include revisions to the code made by the Guardian Council that now require individuals accused of national security, capital, political or press crimes and those accused of offences that carry life sentences to select their counsel from an official pool of lawyers chosen by the head of the judiciary during the investigative phase of the trial.16 On 6 July 2015, the bar association reportedly called on the head of the judiciary, the parliament and the President to reconsider the revisions.17 12 13 14 15 16 17 See www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/2708/2016/en/. Under the old code, the involvement of a lawyer during the investigation phase in national security cases or in cases where the judge determined that such involvement would result in “corruption” was at the discretion of the judge. In practice, this meant that individuals accused of national security crimes were almost never granted the right to a lawyer during the investigation and pretrial phases, making them vulnerable to abuses such as ill-treatment, torture, coerced confessions or enforced disappearance by law enforcement forces, officials of the intelligence ministry or others (art. 33 of the Criminal Procedure Code (1999)). Art. 190, note 1, of the Criminal Procedure Code (2015). It is important to note that prior to the latest round of amendments to the code, this note said that any investigation resulting from the violation of the right to allow the accused access to a lawyer would be null and void. Last-minute amendments instead provided for punishment of judicial officials and others who violate this right. Art. 190, note 2, of the Criminal Procedure Code (2015). This requirement does not exist, however, for other heavy punishments such as amputations and long-term prison sentences. See www.rrk.ir/Laws/ShowLaw.aspx?Code=8008 (in Persian). Art. 48 of the Criminal Procedure Code (2015). See http://icbar.ir/Default.aspx?tabid=55&ctl=Edit&mid=435&Code=22124 (in Persian). 7