A Comparative Study of Rights of Culprit in Islamic Jurisprudence, Codes of Legal Procedure of Iran and International Documents

Attention to rights of culprit has instances in divine religions as well as Islam but in the past few decades, especially after establishing and approval of charter of the United Nations and global documents such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, this subject has drawn more attention to itself. Rights of defense by culprit as one of the items of fair judgment is a set of advantages and rights assigned to the culprit to secure his rights and benefits. The obvious fact is that establishing judgment justice is one of the long-term wishes of humankind the realization of which becomes possible through creating fair trial based on provision of right of defense and justice. Among these rights, one can items such as equal tribunal, fair and public judgment in a competent, independent and impartial court, right to counsel, right of immediate to silence, right of immediate trial and the prohibition of torture and coercion to confess. In the present study, the author seeks to comparatively study this subject from the viewpoints of Imami Jurisprudence, new code of legal procedure passed in 2014 and international documents.