Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in a meeting on Wednesday with the judiciary chief and officials, described the cleanness and continuous efforts for satisfying people as the important task and main objective of the judiciary branch.
Referring to the advent of International Quds Day (marked on the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians), Ayatollah Khamenei said: “Thanks to God, cries in unison in support of the oppressed people of Palestine will reverberate once more across Iran and the Muslim world on Friday and the Islamic Ummah will abide by the important obligation of defending the oppressed.”
At the start of this meeting, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution commemorated Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, the founder of the (post-revolution) Iranian judiciary who was killed in a bomb blast in 1981, as a right-minded and firm manager with foresight and an unrelenting drive. Ayatollah Khamenei also offered sincere gratitude to the top judiciary officials as well as judiciary directors and staff for their efforts.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution heaped praise on the head of the judiciary as a savant, learned and understanding figure, saying: “The judiciary is of paramount importance because of its natural tasks like supervising the implementation of the law, and preventing crimes as well as the presence of the head of the judiciary in the supreme and main councils in the [Islamic] establishment and its influence on macro policies.”
“Due to this exemplary importance, the actions and the performance of the judiciary have always been especially sensitive and this branch of power is at the receiving end of aggressive comments and abundant negative propaganda,” said Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said: “Spiteful propaganda by foreign media and onslaught on the judiciary have been stepped up at the present time, and the reason for this could be the revolutionary, fervent and categorical stances [adopted] by the head of the judiciary and top officials of this branch of power.”
Reiterating the need for the judiciary to satisfy people as its Islamic obligation and fundamental objective, Ayatollah Khamenei said the “cleanness of the judiciary” was the main factor in satisfying people and said: “Inside the judiciary, contraveners and corrupt individuals in all provinces and cities must be seriously and firmly dealt with and this trend must continue.”
“Give prime importance to the cleanness of the judiciary and consider it as a main task,” said the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
Ayatollah Khamenei also stressed the need for the dissemination of information about dealing with contraveners inside the judiciary.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution pointed out: “Besides betraying the industrious judiciary directors and staff who are dedicated to serving [people], the few people within the judiciary who commit corruption and illegal actions, also deny people their rights.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said a pivotal schedule and timeframe for implementing plans, preventing crimes and amending laws were other highly significant requirements for the judiciary and its favorable track record. Reiterating the need for minimizing prison sentences as punishment, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution said: “By consulting pundits and veteran experts, alternative punishments to jailing must be devised.”
Referring to the issue of crime prevention, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “This issue is very important and not limited to [the judiciary] power and requires thinking, knowledge and experience.”
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said one of very necessary jobs in the judiciary was to reflect the services rendered by this branch of power and inform people about them, adding: “In order to reflect the big volume of work done by the judiciary, new and attractive methods of information and publicity must be applied.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said attractive education of legal and judicial issues to people would reduce referrals to justice departments and recommended judiciary officials to seriously take into consideration providing the ground for people to benefit from round-the-clock judicial consultation.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution highlighted the necessity of the judiciary’s more active follow-up of international legal issues, saying: “Pursuing the rights denied to the Iranian nation due to sanctions must top the agenda of the judiciary.”
Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the US tribunals’ verdict for dipping into the Iranian nation’s assets under empty pretexts and groundless accusations, saying: “Denial of the Iranian nation’s rights due to the sanctions is a violation that must be followed up by the judiciary at international level.”
“Following up on the rights of thousands of victims of terrorism in Iran”, “Filing lawsuit against governments that overtly and covertly support the killers of these victims” and “providing legal defense to oppressed Muslim figures across the globe” were among cases recommended by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to the judiciary officials.
Ayatollah Khamenei said reviving Islamic human rights across the world was another task assigned to the judiciary, adding: “The human rights claimed by the West has been formulated on a wrong basis and it is necessary that Islamic human rights be elucidated and pursued within the world public opinion and legal bodies on solid and logical bases.”
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said the official announcement of the “United Nations’ turning a blind eye to the ongoing crimes and child killings in Yemen in exchange for receiving money from some countries” was a cause of disgrace for humanity, adding: “This scandal goes against genuine human rights and we have to do legal and juridical work on this at international levels.”
Summing up his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei noted: “The judiciary must be one hundred percent revolutionary and act in a revolutionary manner.”
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said: “Of course, revolutionarism – despite certain views and propaganda – is not radicalism. Rather, revolutionarism means ‘acting justly, wisely, precisely, conscientiously, fairly, firmly and without standing on ceremonies’.”
Prior to Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks, the head of the judiciary Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani presented a report on the most important measures and activities of this branch of power.
Ayatollah Larijani said the judiciary has provided services to people on a massive scale, citing more than 14 million files examined at justice departments and local dispute settlement boards as well as more than 70 million cases registered in the last calendar year which ended on March19.
The head of the judiciary referred to “intensified supervision on the performance of judges and staff” and “serious fight on corruption in order to guarantee the cleanness of the judiciary” as other measures undertaken in this regard, saying: “‘Dealing with economic corruption seriously and powerfully’ including the cases of defendants [embroiled in] oil [affairs] and handling files related to major debts to banks and ‘creating economic security for production and investment’ are among the most important policies and measures by the judiciary.”
Ayatollah Larijani also referred to Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks about the necessity of reducing the number of inmates, saying: “A comprehensive and precise official instruction has been compiled in this regard and we are looking for alternative punishments to imprisonment”. He added that the number of entries into prisons has witnessed a 20% drop.
The head of the judiciary also highlighted activities done with regard to “crime prevention”, “plan-oriented” activities as well as “expurgation of and amendments to the law”, saying budget deficit and shortage of human resources were the challenges faced by the judiciary.