Journal of Critical Reviews

ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 17, 2020

Review Article

THE ROLE OF JUDICIAL OFFICERS IN PROVIDING JUDICIAL SECURITY RELYING ON THE FORMATION OF THE JUDICIAL POLICE

QUDRATULLAH EBRAHIMI FARANI1*, SAMAN SEIDI2

1Assistant Professor of Mofid University of Qom, Ph.D. of Criminal Jurisprudence, Iran. 2Graduated from Mofid University of Qom, MA in Criminal Law and Criminology, Iran.

Received: 10 Aug 2019 Revised and Accepted: 26 Oct 2019

ABSTRACT Judicial officers play an important role in the judiciary as the executive arms in providing judicial security. Education, building culture of privacy, and protection of citizenship rights, as well as human dignity, are the most important components of a citizenship-oriented judicial officer. In the meantime, forming judicial police as the main judicial officer police in the heart of law enforcement forces can better provide education, building culture, privacy, and protection of citizenship rights through continuous and transparent supervision of judicial authorities and ensure judicial security at higher levels.

Keywords: Judicial Security, Judicial Police, Officer Training, Law enforcement force.

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Advance Scientific Research . This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/jcr.07.01.01

INTRODUCTION The judiciary needs strong executive power called judicial officers to perform its duties and maintain public order and security, as well as to JUDICIAL OFFICERS AND OBSERVANCE OF CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS establish justice formally and substantively. Judicial officers have a very high level of connection with a different stratum of society due to One of the most important and crucial stages of the trial is the their various responsibilities and duties so that the behavior and preliminary investigation stage. This stage can be considered as the character of judicial officers can be considered as a direct policy of the stage of ignorance or lack of knowledge of judicial authorities and criminal justice system in dealing with society. officers. On the other hand, the perpetrators have not yet had enough Article 28 of the Code of Criminal Procedure adopted 2013 stipulates: " opportunity to destroy all the trace of the crime, and the intuition judicial officers are the agents who take action in the discovery of the remembers their observations; meantime, the public minds wait for crime, preservation of traces and signs and gathering evidence of the the functioning of the criminal justice system more than ever. crime, identification, finding and preventing the escape and hiding the In the Code of Criminal Procedure adopted in 2013, the preliminary accused, preliminary investigation, constructive service and execution investigation is primarily done by the prosecutor or other judicial of judicial decisions following the law and under the supervision and authorities. This indicates the importance and expertise of the training of the prosecutor. Officer means the supervisor, preserver, and preliminary investigation, but in Article 98 of the Code of Criminal custodian of everything to its extent, and in legal terms, officers are the Procedure, the legislature has allowed judicial to conduct a preliminary power for court execution to carry out the orders of judicial investigation, provided that it is not one of the crimes mentioned in authorities. In the law of our country, judicial officers are divided into paragraphs A, B, P and T of Article 302, because due to the very high two general and special categories; general officers include sensitivity of these crimes, the legislator of judicial authority select commanders, officers and police officers who have received the (prosecutor) personally to do this investigation. necessary training, and special officers include officials and agents like According to the judicial practice in our country, officers, especially law heads, deputies and prison officers concerning the affairs of prisoners, enforcement forces have a very important role in conducting agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and IRGC Intelligence preliminary investigations, so that in principle, judicial authorities Organization and Basij, Niru- -e Basij called justice leave preliminary investigations to judicial officers, except in cases officers according to special rules to do assigned tasks. Also, other where the law prohibits their transfer to judicial authorities. Judicial armed forces that all or some ye of officers Moghāvemat duties assigned to them by officials also benefit from the cooperation of officers in these cases. law are considered officers. When judicial officers, especially law enforcement forces have broad In the previous key law, the legislator had’ considered law enforcement powers to detect and preserve a crime, identify and find the accused, forces as general officers; this requires education and certificate in initial interrogations, constructive service and decisions, especially in 2013. A criticism in response to the previous key law is not recognizing dealing with obvious crimes, violation of citizenship rights and all law enforcement forces as general officers. deviation from legal norms by the officers in the preliminary The truth is that being a general judicial officer means taking on a large investigation can generally divert the criminal case and deprive part of the burden for providing social and judicial security, which individuals of their rights and security provided by law requires continuous training and supervision. The hypothesis of the (Moazenzadegan and Koorehpez, 2016). Deprivation of individuals present article is based on the role of pre-service and in-service from grievances and maintaining social security can ultimately lead to training for judicial officers which can be crucial in providing judicial a sense of public insecurity in society, that is, when the law security at all stages of the trial, especially preliminary investigations. enforcement force responsible for maintaining social order and Also, forming judicial police in Iran justice system due to continuous security becomes a factor in undermining public security, people do supervision and high-level education can be a big step towards better not feel safe on the streets in the presence of law enforcement force judicial security, especially in the preliminary investigations. and ultimately do not trust the police and the entire criminal justice

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ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 17, 2020 system. At this stage, society is facing a very big problem that requires telegraph and telex communications, non-communication and non- a lot of money and time to solve. delivery of them and any interrogation are prohibited except by law." In this regard, there is a group of crimes called crimes against Article 8 of the Law on Respect for Legitimate Freedoms and citizenship rights, such crimes are committed only by social security Citizenship rights also stipulates that "local inspections and and judicial agents of society, forces that are mainly under the examinations, in order to arrest fugitive defendants or discover supervision of the prosecutor. Unfortunately, these crimes have a high criminal instruments and devices, shall be carried out following legal black figure in our country, which shows the distrust of the various regulations, without disturbance, and with utmost caution." "Objects stratum of society to the police as a security guard. and documents that have no connection with the crime or do not Trust in the criminal justice system plays a very important role in belong to the accused, as well as the disclosure of the contents of ensuring social security, especially in the fight against criminal letters and writings and family photos and family films and their organizations, intuitions that provide their information to the judiciary unnecessary recording should be forbidden". Article 11 of the same need full trust. law stipulates that "questions should be useful and clear and related to Unfortunately, there is a misconception in our country among some the accusation or accusations, and curiosity about personal and family special judicial officers who do not oblige themselves to follow the secrets and questions about the past sins of individuals and addressing orders of judicial officials. This misconception is more prevalent ineffective issues in the case under consideration should be avoided." among the intelligence and security services, they assume some extra- Respect for the privacy of individuals also has its religious and legal authorities for themselves due to its importance and complexity jurisprudential roots, so that verse 49 of Surah Al-Hujurat says in this of security issues and this is a sign of the lack of proper training of regard: O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for special officers by the juridical authorities. It should be noted that this suspicion in some cases is a sin: And spy not on each other behind their misconception is also widespread among different stratum of society, backs. In other words, in Islamic thought, suspicion and prosecute in which requires the efforts of senior judicial officials and proper the privacy of the individual is forbidden and not be accepted. training of judicial officers to judicial officers, it may be a good idea to In other words, in Islamic thought, to discover and prosecute a crime cooperate cultural deputy and crime prevention with the Radio and attributed to the accused, it is never possible to search his personal life Television to make a series or a film with educational themes on without any reason and find out his hidden details (Mohaghegh citizenship rights, as well as show the high status of the judiciary, or Damad, 2013). teach citizenship rights to students at secondary levels in cooperation Generally, the observance of citizens' privacy by judicial officers is with the Ministry of Education. divided into four categories: first, physical privacy, second, the privacy The preliminary investigation process itself can legally and of homes and facilities, third, privacy of information, and fourth, temporarily deprive individuals of a range of individual and social privacy of communication (Farmihni Farahani, 2009). rights and freedoms. However, if officers do not go beyond the law, the It is clear that respect for the privacy of individuals in the process of course of the trial will be changed in a way that may affect the final preliminary investigation and all stages of the criminal trial is seriously verdict of the court and leading right lapsing. considered by the legislature and is raised by the jurisprudence To prevent such problems, the legislature in 2004 enacted a single principle of avoiding suspicion. article entitled "Law on Respect for Legitimate Freedoms and Citizenship." The followers of this law were all public, revolutionary JUDICIAL OFFICERS AND ARRAIGNMENT and military courts, as well as public prosecutor's office that was explicitly stated that " judiciary officers are obliged to observe and Arraignment is another manifestation of citizenship rights because it implement the following in the performance of their legal duties ..." is necessary to protect the defense rights of the accused in rejecting or Some jurists believed that it was more like a recommendation or a pact dismissing the accusation, which is attributed to the ignorance of the of citizenship rights because, in their view, it had no guarantee of subject and reasons of the accusation violates individual rights and implementation and was reminded as the "Grand Charter."(Goodarzi freedoms and clearly shows the violation of the principle of freedom Boroujerdi, 2005) from suspicion (Moazenzadegan, 2006). It seems that these professors did not pay attention to Article 570 of . Confidentiality of criminal trial is not applied to the accused in the Penal Code and, like judges for years and ignored this very principle, but it means keeping the privacy of information to important legal article. Article 570 of the Penal Code was exactly an example of guaranteeing the implementation of citizenship rights. irresponsible people, and confidentiality to the accused as a medieval However, the criminal proceedings enacted a new version of Article method has been obsolete for a long time. 570 of the Penal Code so that judges, lawyers, and professors would Arraignment is the duty of the judicial authority and the prosecutor to inform the accused, and the judicial officers cannot do arraignment. not assume violation of citizenship rights without a guarantee of Within one hour of the accused being supervised, judicial officers must enforcement. inform the prosecutor's office of the registration, occupation, and All actions of judicial officers, from the law enforcement force to the Ministry of Intelligence and Intelligence of the IRGC and other judicial address details, as well as the reason for the surveillance, in any way officers, must be in the legal framework. Extrajudicial powers should possible. Also, if the accused is being supervised outside office hours, not be given to various institutions and it should always be noted that he/ she must be notified to the prosecutor or the judge within one hour. (Khaleghi, 2016) lasting security can be achieved through the rule of law and the Although the legislature did not allow judicial officers for arraignment, observance of citizenship rights while preserving the human dignity of it required them to inform the accused of the rights and contributions all citizens. That is why the constitution of our country obliges all judicial officers and judicial authorities to observe the principle of outlined in the Code of Criminal Procedure whenever the accused was freedom from suspicion at all trial stages. being monitored, and to provide him in writing. In general, the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the duties of officers against the accused are largely influenced by JUDICIAL OFFICERS AND RESPECT FOR PRIVACY human rights standards, and its provisions are much more protective than in the past, and due to the greater vulnerability of the accused One of the most important issues in respecting the citizenship rights of during supervision, most of the supporting legal materials have been individuals in the process of the preliminary investigation by judicial written in this stage. officers is respect for the privacy of individuals. Fortunately, this issue has been concerned sufficiently by the legislator in our country. TRAINING OF GENERAL OFFICERS AND THEIR ROLE IN JUDICIAL Article 25 of the Constitution stipulates, "Inspection and non-delivery SECURITY of letters and disclosure of telephone conversations and disclosure of

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ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 17, 2020 Each organization has its own designed goals, the goal of which is to human dignity based on the constitution and relevant laws. In addition achieve the same defined goals, and this requires experienced and to the ongoing training discussion with judicial officials, the legislature specialized human resources. Today, the world around us is constantly obliged the prosecutor to monitor officers in addition to holding changing, and the rapid growth of information and communication continuous training and has mandated monthly visits to judicial technologies has created complex and ambiguous conditions for any officers. Despite all these sensitivities by the legislature, law organization. The world around is changing, and these changes justify enforcement force cannot be considered as juridical of the judiciary. the need for new and serious training for human resources in any Therefore, the independence of the commanders of this force and organization. The influence of education and knowledge on separate training in training centers under the command of the law organizational productivity and cohesion is very important, and due to enforcement force has caused some difficulties in training and the passage of time and changes in working conditions, the need for monitoring and control of judicial officers, especially the law continuous pre-service and in-service training is seriously felt. enforcement force and this indicates a vacancy of the judicial police in That is why some thinkers in the management science field have the Iranian justice system. replaced the scientist's term by term of employees. Because scientists are the new generation of organizational employees who are THE VACANCY OF THE JUDICIAL POLICE IN THE IRANIAN considered experts in their respective organizations (Drucker, 1993). JUDICIARY Now, when we talk about the training of judicial officers, we mean all the efforts that are made to improve the level of knowledge and It was mentioned before that the law enforcement force as the general awareness, technical, professional, and vocational skills, as well as to judicial officer is the main executive power of the judiciary. All the create a favorable behavior based on Islamic and organizational ethics duties of the law enforcement forces can be considered as a judicial in the judicial officers. It should not be overlooked that human officer, i.e. it should be under the supervision and training of the resources usually do not have the necessary conditions to retain jobs in judiciary, but unfortunately in our country, the law enforcement force the beginning, so it is necessary to change their permanent behavior has no administrative connection. This sometimes causes illegal according to the needs of the organization through training measures. behavior in the law enforcement force. The process of behavior changes following environmental and intra- The law enforcement force was formed by merging the law organizational developments and even in the career path of the enforcement force, committee, and gendarmerie according to the law individual should be continuous and education should be continuously enforcement law approved in 1986. According to Article 2 of the same improved and modified (Yavari Bafghi, 2013). Although the training of law, "it is an armed organization affiliated with the Ministry of Interior all judicial officers is of special importance, the importance of none of and under the citizenship of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed them should be considered alongside the law enforcement force, this Forces."(Tavajohi et al., 2013) In other words, the law enforcement force as the general judicial officer is the main executive power of the force is a governmental organization whose commander is appointed criminal justice system and has a wide level of contact with all stratum by the leader and all its duties are under the jurisdiction of the of society. Training of judicial officers especially for law enforcement judiciary, and this means that there is a big problem for the judiciary in force is completely related to the changes in the law. For example, supervising and training general judicial officers. And perhaps this is 2013 is a very important year in the history of legislation after the the managerial turmoil in the law enforcement force that sometimes Islamic Revolution. This is the year in which the new Islamic Penal law enforcement commanders mistakenly assume extra-legal powers Code as well as the Code of Criminal trial were adopted. These changes because they have the command of the Supreme Leader. were so extensive in substantive and criminal law that the need to For example, in May 2007, to achieve moral and social security by train judges and judicial officers became apparent, but since most confronting anomalies such as restraint, exaggeration of moral and judges are law graduates, their in-service training seems simpler than social deviations, and mobbing, the police approved and implemented judicial officers who have different educational levels. instructions called the Social Security Improvement Plan throughout The training program for judicial officers in our country, especially the the country. The law enforcement force in Iran not only put itself in the law enforcement force dates back to the period of gendarmerie forces, position of legislating this law but also played some role in judicial and currently, the training of these forces in our country has a regular interpretation. Imaginary terms and interpretations such as rabbles classification, which are: that were not mentioned at all in the law and of course there was no 1- General training centers for an enlistee interpretation, there was no basis for the operation of the contract and 2- Scientific and specialized schools of Law Enforcement Force: without a court order, without trial and even without the supervision training of non-commissioned officers of the judiciary, with the sad cooperation of the Radio and Television to 3- Amin University of Law Enforcement Sciences: Training of officers justify Naked weapons to scare people and made a sad story for all 4- In-service training to employees, except for enlistee lawyers. Raids on people's homes without the permission of the law In the major level of training given for officers in the detailed programs without“ the order of judicial authorities” were a clear example of of various groups, including military, rating, officer, in-service systematic violations of the law by law enforcement. According to one employees are obvious and invisible crimes of the prosecutor and of the authors, social security improvement plan was possible to ignore prosecutor, prosecutor and investigator, types of appointments, big mistakes and correct small ones with the loudest and most severe definition of officers, types of officers and duties and the authority of form possible. (Jargaviyeh, 2010) judicial officers are explained.(Labati, 2000) Perhaps the problem is precisely that it is not clear exactly law Although the training of judicial officers in Iran has a long history, the enforcement force relates to which department as the general judicial Code of Criminal Procedure adopted in 2013 has a look beyond the officer, whether under which legal entity it should be acted. What is existing category of education, so that Article 30 of this law states certain is that all the duties of the law enforcement force are defined in "certification of judicial officers, in addition to credibility and the position of the judicial officer, even dealing with rioters and urban confidence depends on learning the necessary skills by passing unrest is evident in the hands of the judicial officer. (Jarbani and training courses under the supervision of the relevant judicial Shokripour, 2011) authority and obtaining a certificate for judicial officers. Investigations At the beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the and necessary actions taken by persons without certificates are appointment of Dr. Mohammad Hossein Beheshti by the Imam as the prohibited and legally invalid. Note: The prosecutor is obliged to head of the Supreme Court, the necessity of forming judicial police was continuously hold in-service training courses to acquire the necessary felt in the judiciary and according to Dr. Beheshti's proposal, The skills and perform legal duties for judicial officers. Revolutionary Council was approved and the related amendment was The legislator's view in 2013 is continuous training by the judicial approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Thus, the Judicial authorities to juridical force especially the law-enforcement forces Police in the Islamic Republic of Iran was established under the direct because the purpose of this training is to observe citizenship rights and

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ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 17, 2020 supervision and command of the Judiciary in 1990. This date was later well-being of the citizens as an important task, we will undoubtedly considered as Judicial Police Day. face a violation of the intentions of the government and the judiciary. The main difference between the judicial police and the law Respect for citizenship rights and protection of human dignity for the enforcement force is that the judicial police is a subset of the judiciary plaintiff, the victim, the accused, the witness and the informants, as and its recruitment, training, and supervision of staff are directly under well as anyone who is in contact with the judiciary and judicial officers the judiciary and judicial police staff is directly under the prosecutors. by providing proper training and culture of professional ethics and While today in the police force it is not possible to say exactly whether most importantly continuous and transparent monitoring is very it operates under the Ministry of Interior or the supreme leader or important. The training of officers should not be overlooked. It is a even the judiciary. And perhaps it was because of avoiding this very complex category that has been seriously considered by the situation that at the beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, legislature in 2013, and among officers, the law enforcement force has at the suggestion of Dr. Beheshti, the Judicial Police was envisaged in the most contact with a different stratum of society. the Judiciary, which was the executive power of the judiciary (Seidi, Meanwhile, the judiciary, which according to the constitution is 2018). responsible for detecting crimes and prosecuting the accused and But the judicial police in other countries have also had a successful executing punishment and realizing justice, and is the most important experience, although Iran's criminal law, especially in the field of institution in ensuring lasting social security, needs executive power. formal law, is very similar to the formal law of France, the French On the other hand, respecting human dignity and citizenship requires legislature has very advanced regulations in the field of judicial police, properly training judicial officers, should have continuous supervision which can pave the way for Iranian legislator (Mohammad Nasl, 2004). over them, and considering the history of the judicial police in Iran and The term judicial police refer to the continental legal system, headed its successful experience in other countries such as France, the by France, but is synonymous with the word criminal police in some formation of judicial police in the heart of the judiciary in Iran is other countries, such as Germany and Austria. They are responsible for considered desirable. performing their duties to the judicial authorities, and these individuals also have judicial information. Even in France, some REFERENCES judicial officials are referred to as judicial police, meaning that judicial police officers are considered judicial authorities. 1. Moazenzadegan, Hassan Ali, Korehpez, Hossein Mohammad, The Judicial Police launched in our country from 1981 to 1990, and in "Executive Guarantee of Violation of Citizenship Rights in the 1990, at the same time as the formation of the law enforcement force, Police Investigation Process", Doctrines of Criminal Law, 11 the Judicial Police was removed from the judicial system of our (2016) 86-53 country. Today, the Supreme Judicial Officials are again seeking to 2. Goodarzi Boroujerdi, Mohammad Reza, Criminal Justice Policy, revive the Judicial Police, and during the presidency of Ayatollah Amoli Tehran: Publications of the Legal and Judicial Development Larijani, a bill was drafted by the Judiciary to establish a Judicial Police, Department of the Judiciary, 2005 which has five main features: 3. Mohaghegh Damad, Seyed Mostafa, Rules of Criminal 1. The Judicial Police will be a subset of the Judiciary. Jurisprudence, 27th Edition. Tehran: Islamic Sciences Publishing 2. The head of the country's judicial police will be appointed by the Center, 2013 head of the judiciary. 4. Farmihani Farahani, Seyed Javad, A Study of the Requirements for 3. The budget of the Judicial Police is provided from the budget of Citizenship Rights and Freedoms, Tehran: Law Enforcement the Judiciary. Force Publications, 2009 4. Judicial police officers can use weapons if needed. 5. Moazenzadegan, Hassan Ali, Guaranteeing the rights of the 5. The judicial police can request assistance from the police at any accused, Shargh newspaper, Monday, March 3, 2006 time. 6. Khaleghi, Ali, Criminal Procedure Code, 31st Edition, Tehran: Shahr-e-Danesh Publications, 2016 Following years after the bill presentation for forming the Judicial 7. Drucker, Peter, New Thought in Management, translated by Police to the government, the fate of this bill is still unknown. In 2007, Hamid Tonekaboni, Tehran: Morvarid Publications, 1993 a bill on the Judicial Police was introduced in the Islamic Consultative 8. 8-Yavari Bafghi, Amir Hossein, Human Resources Management, Assembly. In this bill, the Judicial Police Organization was formed Tehran: Law Enforcement Force Education and Publications, under the supervision of the law enforcement force, which could not be 2013 approved by the Assembly with 90 votes against. Opponents believed 9. Labati, Hossein, Specialized Disciplinary Principles 1 and 2, that the formation of judicial police under the supervision of law Tehran: Law Enforcement Force Education, 2000 enforcement force would be to the detriment of the judiciary and law 10. Tavajohi, Abdolali, Dehghani, Ali "In the debate on security enforcement. The formation of the judicial police is contrary to Article orientation and fair trial standards", Criminal Law Research, 3 129 of the law on the lack of development of administrative structures (2013) 7-24 and the downsizing of the government, and the formation of the 11. Jargaviyeh, Mohammad Reza, Humor of Legal Terminology, judicial police will be marginalized. Isfahan: Newsletter of Isfahan Bar Association, 2010 According to the author, no matter how important the formation of 12. Jarbani, Hamid, Shokripour, Saeed, "Study of the role of law judicial police is in the interest of the country, it should not be formed enforcement as a general judiciary officer in urban unrest", 2 in the heart of the law enforcement force, because it is not much (2011) 214-193 different from the current situation. Judiciary is a subset of the 13. Seidi, Saman, "Judicial Security in the Pre-Trial Stage in Iranian judiciary. According to the constitution, the judiciary is responsible for Criminal Law", Master Thesis, Qom: Mofid University of Qom, detecting crimes and prosecuting defendants, enforcing sentences, and 2018 needs strong, controlled executive powers to carry out these tasks. 14. Mohammad Nasl, Gholamreza, Introduction to the French Judicial Police, Quarterly Journal of Disciplinary Knowledge, 2 (2004) 24- 1 RESULT

An important part of the task of providing judicial security is the responsibility of judicial officers, the performance of judicial officers is due, and the direct reflection in society is a sign of the value of the judiciary for the security and peace of mind of citizens. If the government and the judiciary do not consider the security and sense of

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