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این یک عنوان است

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Amir Salar Davoudi

On Thursday, January 5th, 2017, the Attorney General, Hojatoleslam Montazeri, stated that two things, money and sexual issues, threaten the judges in their position. He added that it is necessary to consider these limitations in evaluating the health of judges… However, the Attorney General also mentioned that the judiciary is one of the healthiest institutions in the country.

On September 5, 2016, Yahya Kamalipour, a member of the Judiciary Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated in an interview with a reporter regarding the need for a healthy judiciary in order to prevent the spread of corruption in society: “The judiciary is an institution that, in addition to being responsible for addressing public offenses, oversees the implementation of laws and regulations. The judiciary is responsible for the well-being of society in all aspects and is of special importance. Therefore, the Supreme Leader always advises the authorities of this branch to prioritize it in their agenda; because the judiciary is the institution responsible for fighting corruption and must be free from any form of wrongdoing and corruption.”

But is it really true that the judicial system suffers from administrative and judicial corruption, or as some officials claim, corruption is limited and rare in the judicial system?

As a judicial attorney, I do not have precise and accurate statistics on the level and extent of administrative and judicial corruption in the country’s judicial system; however, what is evident is that judicial and administrative corruption (regardless of its quantity and quality) is an undeniable reality in the judicial branch.

In a more precise sense, some judicial and administrative officials – in the offices of the judiciary – officially receive cash from one of the parties involved in cases in order to fulfill their responsibilities in line with their interests. Accepting money to sway towards one of the parties in a dispute is generally the most common corruption in the judicial system; however, there are also many cases where high-ranking officials play a major role in deviating from the handling of legal cases.

On the other hand, sexual deviations also involve a significant amount of judges’ departure from impartiality and judicial independence.

This is while the judiciary has access to internal information protection and despite having such an institution in the judiciary and strict and multi-layered selection processes for hiring qualified individuals for judicial and clerical positions, and even establishing a specialized university to provide judicial and administrative personnel for the judiciary, which has special conditions for studying at this university, the level of corruption in the judiciary seems to be significant.

It is worth mentioning that the judiciary is still composed of honorable, pure, knowledgeable, and just judges, and it has been and is the leader of justice. The issue of corruption in the judiciary is a personal perception and based on the writer’s personal experiences.

Although a few days ago during the approval of the Judiciary’s development budget, one of the members of parliament stated that the performance of the judicial system is not in a good state and there is increasing dissatisfaction among the clients of the courts (“You won’t find anyone who has gone to court and returned satisfied”).

Ensuring the health of the judicial system is a reliable path towards achieving the health of the country’s administrative and economic system. It has been said since ancient times that when something is broken, they add salt to it, but woe to the day when it breaks beyond repair.

The establishment and strengthening of corruption in the judicial system leads to a series of countless corruptions, one of which is the increasing distrust in the decisions of the courts as the only source of security and refuge for citizens.

Increasing mistrust in the judicial system can lead to the problem that individuals in society, after becoming disappointed with the judicial system, raise their sleeves and try to take matters into their own hands outside of the proper legal process in order to assert their rights. In such a situation, we will witness an increase in tension and conflicts among members of society over lost and violated rights.

The next corrupt will be the corruption of judges, which will gradually lead to the loss of function and popularity of the judiciary’s legal profession in the country. The corrupt system will become attractive to those who seek to take advantage, and these corrupt individuals will quickly take the place of the judiciary’s lawyers.

The bottom line is that, recently, the head of the judiciary in the Judiciary Week stated that the overcrowding of courts with cases is a sign of public trust in the judiciary. In response to the head of the judiciary, it must be said that when it comes to justice, there is no other option for people than to turn to the judiciary to seek their rights. Of course, talking about public trust is devoid of any logical basis. It can be argued that if there were multiple options for seeking justice and people still choose to go to one source, it is because of their trust in that chosen source.