Special Court for the Clergy

Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics (Persian: دادگاه ویژه روحانیت‎‎) is an Iranian court system for examining transgressions within the clerical establishment. It tries Shia Muslim clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial framework, and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader. It was established in the early 1980s on an ad hoc basis, subsequently outphased and re-established in 1987. It was fully institutionalized and endowed with a "code" in 1991 under Supreme Leader Khamenei. This code was revised and expanded in 2005.

During the early years of the Iranian revolution, the Special Courts for the Clergy (SCC) were established to deal with "criminal" acts committed by members of the clergy. Here not just crimes were prosecuted, but also those acts aimed against the consolidation of power under Ayatollah Khomeini. As the new judicial structure of the Islamic Republic was devised, the SCC were not conceived as part of it. However, in 1987, the courts were revived by decree of Ayatollah Khomeini in order to try an outspoken critic of the Iran-Contra Affair, Mehdi Hashemi. Faced with disapproval of the unconstitutionality of the SCC, Khomeini in a letter to the Majles of Iran recommended that the special courts start operating within constitutional perimeters after the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

The legalization and integration of the SCC into the official justice system never materialized and thus the Courts for the Clergy continue to function under the direct jurisdiction of the Supreme Leader, and not, as all other courts in Iran, under the judiciary. Whereas the judges of other courts are appointed by the Head of the Judiciary, the judges and prosecutors of the SCC are directly appointed by the Supreme Leader. The judiciary has no authority to monitor, oversee or interfere in the affairs of the SCC. The Supreme Court, being part of the judiciary, has no jurisdiction to review cases of the SCC. Instead, appeals are heard by another chamber of the clerical court. All court proceedings are closed to the public and whatever other laws may apply to legal proceedings and prison conditions in the country, they do not apply to the SCC. "It is not difficult to see how the SCC, given their legal status outside any accountable, transparent check by a governmental office other than the Office of the Supreme Leader, could transform into the Supreme Leaders’ primary instrument to discipline and prosecute dissident clerics."

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