Iran's hardline Guardian Council, in a surprise move, has approved a law banning torture two days after the measure was passed by the departing reformist Parliament. The council, a powerful oversight agency, had rejected an earlier bill three times, saying it violated Islamic law.
The approval of the bill on Thursday is an important political achievement for Parliament, which ends its term on May 26. Its reform agenda has suffered because of pressure from the council, which must approve all measures before they become law.
The new bill was drafted after the leader of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, a hardline cleric, issued an order in recent weeks that banned torture and the extraction of confessions under duress. Ibrahim Azizi, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, said Thursday that the current bill was found not to be in conflict with Islamic law or the constitution.
Bahaedin Adab, a reformist member of Parliament, said the lawmakers took advantage of the statement and had reflected all aspects of it in the bill's text.
"It was more complete than Parliament's original anti-torture bill because it even pointed to the details of interrogation," he said.
"It did not matter which political faction was the source of the bill. We are not pursuing political goals and want to serve people's interests," he said.
Although banned by the Iranian Constitution, the use of torture and duress has been common in prisons and during interrogations.
An Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, died last year while in custody in Evin prison. She died July 10 from a brain hemorrhage caused by a blow to her head, a government statement said.
Shahroudi's statement ruled that suspects could not be blindfolded, shackled or humiliated. It added that a suspect should be considered innocent until proved guilty, stressed the right of the suspect to have a lawyer and condemned the abuse of power and improper imprisonment.
"All forms of torture aiming to obtain confession are banned, and confessions obtained in this way have no legal or religious value," the statement said.
"In the course of arrest or interrogation, eyes must not be blindfolded, limbs shackled or the accused humiliated," the statement said.
Political analysts say the shift by the Guardian Council may indicate an intention to work with the new Parliament. Hardline politicians won elections in February amid low voter turnout and disqualifications of reform candidates.
Runoff elections were held Friday for 57 of 290 seats for which no candidate had won the required 25 percent of votes in the first round of voting in February.
"There are signs that indicate hardliners have changed and that we will see them allow more social, cultural and political freedoms," said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political analyst.
"They have become very optimistic after their victory in parliamentary elections and will try to meet people's demand for more freedom in order to lure them to the polls next year for the presidential election," Leylaz said.
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