The Supreme Leader’s View of the Judiciary

The Supreme Leader’s View of the Judiciary
10/09/2009

The purpose behind the existence of the judiciary
Judges: Pivot of the judiciary
Supervising the judiciary
Duties of the judiciary
Administration of justice
The necessity of administering justice
The basis of justice
The organization to guarantee administration of justice

The limits of administering justice

Justice in the domestic arena
Justice on the international front
Preventing corruption
Prosecution of criminals
Guaranteeing respect for the law in society
The people who are dissatisfied with the judiciary
Defending the convict
The need for judicial security in society
Public security
Economic security
Moral security

The Supreme Leader’s View of the Judiciary

The purpose behind the existence of the judiciary

The purpose behind the existence of the judiciary is to help people feel secure in society and let them know that there is a place where they can refer to if their rights are violated by anyone. The purpose behind the existence of the judiciary is to let people know that if their rights are violated even by the very powerful people – administration officials for instance – the judiciary will bravely protect their rights without any bias. The judiciary will be considered successful in performing its duties if it can create such a feeling in society. If this feeling of assurance is created in society, none of the enemies’ machinations will succeed because people will practically feel the presence of the judiciary and the bravery of judges in dealing with threats and those who want to distort the reality by causing uproar. Trying to distort the reality by causing uproar is a crime which is even heavier than threatening someone because it is a form of practical attack and damages the reputation of the judge. If the people see that judges fulfill their duties without paying any attention to these things, the efforts of those who are trying to distort the reality will prove futile.

Judges: Pivot of the judiciary

Judges are the pivot of the judiciary system. Other organizations are all at the service of judges and help them perform their duties. They are like forces providing support for the front line. The judge is the front line. What happens in the court informs us about what is going on and what the situation is like behind this front line. As they say “the fruit tells one about the tree”. All brave judges and parts of the judiciary can be proud of themselves when they properly fulfill their duties and judge with open eyes knowing that God supervises their judgment. “Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord.” [The Holy Quran, 2:157] Exercising patience in difficult situations when performing a great and revolutionary act will bring about Allah’s blessings and mercy. Therefore, judges should be proud of themselves. They should know that their performance is constantly supervised by God. Allah’s angels are the best recorders of humans’ deeds.

Supervising the judiciary

The judiciary should welcome legal supervision over its performance. The law is one of the tools for supervision. The law is one of the elements of the judiciary and plays an important role in supervising the performance of the judiciary. The criterion for supervision should be the law, and the laws should not be violated. There should be no exceptions or specific conditions for the enforcement of the law. Nothing should be omitted from the law for any reason. After all, the judiciary should welcome all forms of supervision. It should welcome all supervision, comments, and fair criticism of its performance. The organizations in charge of supervising the performance of the judiciary as well as legal experts and the experts of universities and Islamic seminaries should express their views and criticisms and offer suggestions about the performance of the judiciary. These will strengthen the judiciary and help them gain experience. Thankfully, the judiciary enjoys good foundations. It has been founded on the basis of the Islamic Republic and Islamic principles. The judiciary is a strong organization and is not afraid of anything. The more supervisory and legal challenges it faces, the more experienced it will become.

Duties of the judiciary

Any system, including the Islamic Republic, needs a judiciary system – one that is strong and can be trusted. These two elements complement one another. Being trusted by the people does not mean that the judiciary’s power to enforce the law can be reduced in order to gain public support. The duty of the judiciary is to guarantee the enforcement of the law.

The judiciary is one of the main elements of the Islamic Republic. Fulfilling a great portion of the goals of the Islamic Republic depends on the performance and efficiency of the judiciary system. The issues of justice, defending people’s rights, obeying the law, standing against those who bully, encroach on other people’s rights, and take advantage of others, and creating a feeling of security and peace in people’s lives are not minor issues in the Islamic Republic system. These are the duties of the judiciary system. The constitutional mechanisms for the judiciary system are very accurate and assuring. The duties of the judiciary and the conditions which have been determined for the judiciary officials in the Constitution and Islamic laws all prepare the ground for the judiciary to fulfill its duties.

Administration of justice

Defending justice in a brave and powerful manner is the main duty of the judiciary. This is the essence of what the judiciary is supposed to do. It is the duty of all of us to obey the law. But violating the law is a crime which will be dealt with by the judiciary. All the laws which are passed in the Islamic Republic system should follow the same goal, which is to promote justice. There is a tradition which says, “And the earth and heavens were built on justice.”

The necessity of administering justice

“Justice covers a broad range, and he who is restricted by justice is even more restricted by oppression.” Justice is the solution for everyone, even for a convict. Those who are convicted on the basis of justice should know that such conviction would be even more difficult to bear had it been based on injustice because it is possible for one to emerge victorious out of a court which does not administer justice. But injustice poses a threat which may harm one later in life. Justice should be administered and administration of justice should not be stopped due to any reason – money, power, or bureaucracy. It will be harmful if bureaucracy acts as a hindrance to administration of justice. Bureaucracy should be such that it contributes to administration of justice because the criterion is justice. It should not be thought that imprisoning a person who has been sentenced to jail and freeing him after a while is administering justice. This is only part of administering justice. The other part is to make sure that prison is not a place which will make that person more corrupt or will destroy his character and cause numerous problems for his family.

The basis of justice

Justice plays a fundamental role in the creation of the world. This means that justice is a divine law in the creation of the universe, and therefore any social system which moves in accordance with this natural and divine law will be successful. Humans are only successful when they act in accordance with divine laws and the rules of creation – which will never change. According to this divine view, justice is intrinsic to creation and is rooted in it.

The organization to guarantee administration of justice

The judiciary is the organization which should guarantee administration of justice, and all other organizations are bound to obey justice. However, if there are any organizations which do not act in accordance with justice, it is the judiciary which can justly prosecute those organizations and punish them for what they have done. Therefore, if the judiciary does not exist, is not powerful enough, lacks courage, or suffers from internal weaknesses, administration of justice is by no mean guaranteed in society. This bears testimony to the important role of the judiciary. Therefore, it is a duty of the judiciary to defend justice in society in a brave and strong manner.

The limits of administering justice

Justice in the domestic arena

Sometimes, administration of justice is limited to a personal dispute over a certain amount of money, a piece of land, a crime, a fight, or similar issues. However, administration of justice is sometimes related to more important issues, where it concerns the rights, destiny, and lives of people. Sometimes this might be an important financial issue. There might be people who steal the properties of the public and poor people. For instance, there might be thousands of people or families living in a town or city who can spend a certain amount of money and have a road or factory built for them or spend that money to provide facilities and job opportunities for themselves. Then a greedy person might take away all that money – which can be used to do all these things – and use it for his own personal purposes. This is a much bigger crime than when someone slaps another person on the face. Of course, this is also a crime and should not be ignored. Islam does not even ignore a scratch you leave on someone else’s skin if he is to complain. But there is a broad range of crimes. Some crimes are the biggest crimes that one could possibly commit. Therefore, they are more important than other crimes. When you are going to deal with a person who has stolen public properties in such a ruthless manner, bravery, power, and a good reputation among people is needed. Tarnishing the reputation of the judiciary is one of the most severe blows to people’s lives and could be considered a crime. It makes no difference who does this. Sometimes this might be done by people from inside or outside the judiciary.

Justice on the international front

Today the Islamic Republic – which is an independent and self-confident system – has stood up to the greed of the global arrogance. Today the US and its allies, the Zionists, and the capitalist powers of the world are using all their media and political resources to silence millions of Palestinians and omit them from global and human equations. They have exerted influence wherever possible and had other governments cooperate with them. But when it comes to Iran, they always come up against a great obstacle and realize that their efforts will be useless. Therefore, they start to oppose the Islamic Republic and make efforts to remove this obstacle.

We will face a far more serious problem than financial crimes if the arrogant powers – with their evil intentions and reliance on their money, political relations, and power of media coverage – manage to build a base inside the country and employ some miserable and deluded people to work against their own country’s interests. We will face a far more serious problem if these people play into the enemy’s hands. Who will stand up to this injustice against the Iranian nation? This requires courage, power, and motivation.

Preventing corruption

One of the duties of the judiciary is to prevent corruption. Prevention requires special means and appropriate organizations. Probably the agents and organizations that cooperate with the judiciary could also prevent corruption – especially the security and intelligence services. All of these forces must be used to prevent corruption. If there is a corrupt, greedy, and cunning opportunist inside the country who uses the public resources of the country – which belong to people from different social classes – for personal purposes without being held responsible, he or she must be stopped. Obviously, this action will lead to different degrees of reaction from the three government branches. They will not stay silent.

Prosecution of criminals

The role of the judiciary is to prosecute criminals according to the law wherever it finds them. Those who commit an offense must be dealt with according to the law. These factors all play an important role in the structure of our Islamic establishment and in achieving the goals set by the Islamic Republic. Those who commit crimes while being well aware of the law are the most dangerous – that is, those criminals who know the rules well and are familiar with the labyrinth of different laws, but violate the law without even being identified as a law-breaker. This is something that is totally contradictory to the concept of Islamic rule and waiting for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (a.s.).

We must fight corruption in all governmental organizations. First and foremost, government officials, ministers, and senior managers of the country are themselves responsible for preventing corruption in the government. They must prevent corruption in their organizations. If they are willing to fight corruption seriously, they can do this better than anyone else. Of course they must take care not to let themselves get involved in corruption. Someone who is himself involved in corruption will not be able to fight corruption. Government officials must be fully vigilant in fighting corruption. If, God forbid, managers fail to fully fight corruption, the judiciary will inevitably have to get involved. The judiciary must deal with all offenses whenever it notices them without any exceptions or taking any considerations into account.

Guaranteeing respect for the law in society

How is respect for the law guaranteed? There is one way to do this: The power of the judiciary. The judiciary is the powerful arm of the Islamic Republic that is supposed to prosecute offenders and put them in their place so that the people can live under the protection of the law. Therefore, the power of the judiciary is indispensable. At the same time, this power must earn the people’s trust. Any court of law in any part of the country which is referred to by a group of people – even a small group of people – must act in a way that it can gradually gain the trust of the people. That is to say, everyone should be assured that the local center of judgment they refer to will issue its verdicts on the basis of law and justice.

The people who are dissatisfied with the judiciary

Undoubtedly, there will always be some people who will be dissatisfied with the judiciary. “And when they are invited to Allah and His Messenger that he may judge between them, lo, a party of them turn aside.” [The Holy Quran, 24: 48] According to the Quran, whenever they find the verdict in their interest, they accept it. And whenever the verdict benefits the opposing side, they protest. That is always the case. However, when the judiciary decisively carries out its duties in accordance with the law and seriously deals with offenders without taking anyone’s interests into account – especially, when the offenders are part of the judiciary – the people will feel assured. This is what we must aim for. This is what we must achieve. Of course achieving this goal necessitates different measures. All things must be specified. The high-ranking officials of the judiciary must have easy and constant access to the necessary information. There must also be supervision. The actions of the judiciary must be supervised. Systematic measures within the judiciary are of primary importance. Management within the judiciary must be systematic and calculated.

Defending the convict

Naturally, any judgment will satisfy one group of people and dissatisfy another. Dissatisfaction with a judgment is of two types. Some people observe the rules of social life. That is to say, some people do not aggressively challenge the judge’s verdict although they are dissatisfied with his judgment. On the other hand, some other people do not observe the norms of social life. When they are dissatisfied with the verdict of a courageous judge – who deserves to be deeply respected – they become aggressive. They are dissatisfied with the verdict, and they defend the offender who has been convicted. Defending a convict is against the law. According to the law, defending a convicted criminal is the same as fighting the law. It is necessary that some people understand this. A judge must be independent, and he must not be influenced by anyone. It is not right to pass verdicts on the basis of a telephone call or an order. Verdicts must be passed on the basis of one’s sense of justice, information, and religious reasons. It is also possible to pressure a judge in other ways: Newspaper headlines, political pressure, and different types of manipulation. The judge must not be manipulated. The judiciary system – both the senior managers in charge of the judiciary and the esteemed judges – must not at all be affected by illogical actions of those who want to further their goals through manipulating others into acting against the judiciary. In addition, those who use such methods must know that they are acting against the law. Of course it is possible to ignore the occasional offenses committed by government officials. But when violating the law becomes the norm, the offenses committed by government officials should not be ignored.

The need for judicial security in society

It is very important that the people feel secure when they face the judiciary or refer to it. This necessitates a very accurate, sensitive, and incisive approach by the judiciary. If there is judicial security, there will be political, social, economic, moral, and cultural security as well. The enemies who are opposed to the existence of the Islamic Republic have today reached the conclusion that undermining the security of the country is the best way they can voice their opposition. Moral and cultural security has been the focus of the enemies’ efforts for many years. The enemies have also targeted the political security of the country, and they have been trying to disrupt the large-scale political movement of the Islamic Republic. In addition, today the enemies are seeking to undermine the social and civil security of the public as well. Thankfully, Iran is one of the countries that enjoy the highest levels of social and civil security.

Public security

An important portion of the responsibility to provide security for the public has to be shouldered by the judiciary. This includes social, economic, and moral security. It is a fact that different executive organizations somehow share this responsibility with the judiciary – for example, regarding social security, the police cooperate with the judiciary to ensure social security. But what is the role of the judiciary in this regard? The judiciary’s duty is to seriously deal with the offenders and make an example of them.

Economic security

Those who are responsible for economic security mainly serve in the organizations affiliated to the executive branch – that is to say, ministries in charge of national economy and banking and financial organizations. However, if there are any financially corrupt people in these organizations, the judiciary must seriously deal with those people and make an example of those involved in the corruption for the individuals who want to corrupt financial organizations. That is the role of the judiciary. This is an important factor in establishing economic security.

Some people think that legal action against economic corruption will disrupt economic security. That is the exact opposite of the reality. Legal action against financially corrupt individuals will create economic security for those who are not financially corrupt – that is, the majority of the people. Only a limited number of people are financially corrupt. These individuals have to be prosecuted so that the majority of the people and those who are active in economic arenas can feel that they have security and that they are moving in the right direction.

Moral security

In an Islamic society, reputation of the citizens must not become the plaything of some irresponsible individuals. Governmental organizations must take legal action against such things. Tarnishing the reputation of other people, leveling false allegations against them, questioning their honor – no matter if they are government officials or ordinary citizens – without a good reason, and spreading rumors about them go against Islamic teachings, Islamic rules, and Islamic norms. Suppose that someone is accused of embezzlement. It will take a long time for that person to prove this accusation wrong. Moral security – that is, protecting people against loss of reputation – is very important in an Islamic society and deserves our attention. The judiciary has an important role to play in establishing moral security.

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