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Leader Khamenei’s Praise for Iranian Judiciary June 26, 2002 (Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran) Praising the martyrs, the Judiciary In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. I welcome the honourable audience, hard-working officials of the Judiciary and the honourable families of the dear martyrs of 7 Tir [28 June 1981, explosion at the Islamic Republican Party HQ]. It is one of the outstanding points in the history of our Judiciary that its annual marking coincides with 7 Tir, which was a glorious incident of martyrdom. May God bless our dear martyr, [former Judiciary head] the late Ayatollah [Mohammad] Beheshti, and bring him close to his ancestors. He started a great endeavour in the political and administrative field of the country and the revolutionary system, and particularly in the judicial field, which was, praise be to God, continued by these gentlemen. The 7 Tir martyrs were the target of a spiteful attack by the enemies of the revolution. The target was not martyr Beheshti alone. All of them and, in fact, all the invaluable managers of the Islamic system were the targets. The aim was to cripple the Islamic system. The efforts you see or hear about today against the Islamic system started from the very first day, the first year and the first years. But praise be to God they have so far been unsuccessful thanks to the resistance of the people, a manifestations of which was the 7 Tir incident. Praising the Judiciary Regarding the Judicial branch, first, I should sincerely thank all the ranks in the Judiciary, from top managers and senior ranks to operational sections, courts and honourable judges and so forth, for all the hard work and services and the large volume of work done in that branch, particularly the efforts and work to which the honourable head of the Judiciary - who looks to the future and oversees the grave responsibilities of the Judicial branch - has referred in his speech. God willing the work will continue as strongly and firmly. I particularly deem it necessary to thank the honourable head of the Judiciary whose scientific, religious and practical status is, praise be to God, a lofty one. It is a divine blessing for the country for such personalities to hold such sensitive and grave responsibilities. We hope that God grants more success to him and his dear colleagues every day. The Judiciary plays a key role in the progress of the country towards Islamic goals. It has been said repeatedly that if we wish to continue this movement towards divine and Islamic goals and observing the rights of the people, it would not be possible without practical guarantee. And that practical guarantee is mostly in the hands of the Judiciary. Judiciary an integral part of Islamic system It is the Judiciary that deals with corruption, transgressions and prevents the reoccurrence of offences. In fact, the Judiciary guarantees appropriate conduct on the part of the officials of the system. It safeguards the rights of the people in the Islamic system. Our thirst for justice can only be quenched by a healthy Judiciary and its ability to effectively perform its duties. It is the Judiciary that guarantees the people's basic rights. It, therefore, must be allowed to fulfil its responsibilities with authority, wisdom and courage. The Judiciary plays a major role. To be employed by this organization and being part of it is truly an honour. Any effort made within this organization or in cooperation with it would be a positive move. It would be a useful and constructive effort. Judiciary is an important entity. Therefore, everybody must do their utmost helping this vital organization to play its exemplary and unique role. Everyone must help. If, God forbid, this branch were to become paralysed and rendered ineffective, then no matter how well the other organs were to perform, they would not be able to fill the vacuum created by transgressions, abuses, offences and crimes. In other words, the system would not be complete without a comprehensive Judiciary. A judge needs people's respect Therefore, as you can see, Islam assigned lofty status to the Judiciary and judges. [Arabic phrase] You have entered an assembly which only the Prophet [Muhammad] and his household are fit to sit in. This is a great statement. It tells a judge that he sits where only a prophet or someone chosen by him or his descendants could occupy. Otherwise, it would be left to a ruthless person to occupy it. These are the two choices. This is such a lofty position that no-one but the prophet or someone chosen by him or his descendants could occupy. This is how the chain of command in Judiciary is determined. Otherwise, we would have injustice. Its [Judiciary's] importance had made it necessary to establish such conditions. Well, Judiciary shoulders a number of responsibilities in this regard. Those who are outside of the Judiciary have also certain duties. They have certain responsibilities regarding the Judiciary. I would also like to say a few words, to you the Judiciary officials. I would like to say a few words to the critics of the Judiciary. I would like to tell the critics that criticism is a good tool in society. Because, criticism would enable the one who is being criticized to recognize his strong and weak points. It would also allow the observers to see the situation. Criticism is, however, different from antagonistic fault finding. We should not undermine the Judiciary. In order for a judge to correctly, confidently and properly occupy the place where the prophet sat, he would need the support of the system. He must feel that he is being supported. He must feel that he is respected by the people. He needs these two things; being respected by the public and being supported by the officials. These two elements would be seriously harmed if irrational criticism and antagonistic fault finding, which might be politically motivated, are unleashed on the Judiciary. People would lose respect for the Judiciary and judges. It [Judiciary] would also lose the support of the officials. Then, under such circumstances how can we expect a judge to deal courageously with those individuals breaking the law, especially if they are powerful and rich.? How can we expect him to try such a criminal without being affected by him? Judiciary should not be undermined This is not easy. If we expect our judges to shoulder great responsibilities and perform with courage, authority and dignity, then we must support these judges and the organization which employs them. We must maintain respect for the Judiciary in the people's eyes. Although there are some exceptions, but usually countries around the world support and praise their Judiciary. In their publicity campaigns and even in their movies, they portray judges as dignified and respectful officials. However, at times the image they portray differs greatly from the truth about their Judiciary organizations. However, they try to portray judges as wise, just and knowledgeable officials occupying invulnerable posts. In most cases, it might not even be true. This is publicity. The publicity is aimed at making a person feeling confident for referring to the Judiciary. A person who has committed a crime would respect the Judiciary. All in all, Judiciary must be able to maintain its image and perform its duties. This is how it works around the world. We should not act against this rational method by undermining the Judiciary. We should not level inappropriate and irrelevant criticisms against the Judiciary. As I said, criticism mean to view both the weakness and strengths. This is what criticism mean. Criticism doesn't mean ignoring the strong points and pointing out the weakness, with particular agenda in mind. We should not undermine the Judiciary. Judiciary can be undermined from within This would harm everyone. No-one in the country, but the enemies of the system, would benefit from a weakened Judiciary. A weakened Judiciary benefits those people who would not wish to see the establishment of the Islamic system. They would not like to see the efforts of the system to bare fruit. Therefore, we ask those people criticizing the Judiciary to do so with fairness, intelligence and without political agenda and antagonism. Otherwise, everyone would get hurt. The Judiciary must also be helped so it could fulfil its duties. When we say that the Judiciary must not be weakened, we are not just identifying sources outside of this organization. There are times when the Judiciary is being undermined from within. An employee of the Judiciary might behave in such a way that it would harm the organization. This is another way of undermining the Judiciary. We should not weaken the Judiciary. In view of the great responsibility entrusted to the Judiciary, it must act very carefully on every level and from top to bottom. Islam demands that a judge must be honest, knowledgeable and well versed in theology. Now, by theology we mean one who is well versed in law and religion. It might not be possible for the Judiciary to employ people with such great expertise. We have appointed judges. By being well versed in theology, we also mean one who would understand judicial process and the way to try particular offences within the framework of law. Judge's verdict must be based on law It is possible that a specific law may not have similar applications in all areas and in relation to all offenders. The judges must be alert, pious, pure and sincere and they should enjoy courage, vision and insight. We need these characteristics and features in our judges, as much as possible. We should not lower our expectations from the performance of the judiciary and its courts. The status of courts should be very high indeed. We should continue to have high expectations for the country's courts, whose actions must have the characteristics of logic and rationality. As I have said many times in the past, the judicial verdicts must be so solidly based on laws that they can be defended anywhere and any time. Of course, this does not mean that a verdict should not be overturned in the State Supreme Court. This is always possible. Nonetheless, a judge's decree must have such solid legal and rational foundations that no-one, no matter how knowledgeable, should be able to deny its validity. This is to say a verdict should not suffer from any weakness and shortcoming. Naturally, there are some prerequisites which need to be satisfied before such a verdict can be produced. These include benefiting from the views of experts, scholars and wise thinkers, as well as the opinion of criminologists. The other prerequisites are: precision, patience, and impartiality and objectivity in the court. If we take these important issues into consideration in our judicial system, then we can say that this organ has fulfilled a significant part of its duties. Money brings corruption Another highly important point is that you should be very alert about the influence of money and wealthy people over the judiciary. This is one of the major sources of danger. Money is very powerful, and this has been proven all over the world. Money is more powerful than many other things. Today, many of the Zionists' aims are being pursued through the power of money, and this is aided by the capitalists of the world. One of the greatest dangers facing the political systems which are built upon a certain doctrine is the influence of money over their key institutions. Money will ruin everything. If any part of the system comes under the influence of wealthy individuals, it will be doomed. This is particularly true for the judiciary. We must be very careful indeed. The same applies to the political organs too, where we must try to prevent the influence and infiltration of political and partisan bias. If the Judiciary relies on piety, sincerity, vision and insight, then it will be able to achieve most of its aims. Of course, the judiciary needs to interact with the other organs, such as the legislative and executive powers. In the same way that we call on the legislative and executive powers to cooperate with the judiciary, we would also like to urge the judiciary power to help the other branches of the political system. Of course this does not mean that different organs should be influenced by others. No, this is not so. On dealing with financial corruption This means that the Judiciary should pay attention to the [political] system's general policies and integrity. And it should seriously avoid overestimating small cases by the individuals who have influential roles in the Judiciary. And big offences should not be underestimated. Innocent characters [saints] have said that one of the things that made old nations subjected to God's revenge was neglecting big things and overestimating petty offences. Of course an offence is an offence. There is no difference between them. Any small or big offence should be dealt with according to the law. But it is important to take care about the focus of attention of the [judiciary] system. Important offences [should be dealt with]. This financial corruption we talked about and followed up [its cases] in the past year has been dealt with because financial corruption is a dirty process which would pollute the entire atmosphere if it is not prevented. We are not talking about an individual offence. Dealing with financial corruption is vitally important for the [political] system. Of course I have said in my letter to the heads of the three branches that managerial mistakes must not be confused with offences. Also people should be informed of matters when a work is done. On the enemies of Islam Propaganda campaign for what has still not been done is not useful. It may even be harmful. [First] do the work and then say that a case has been heard, and such and such took place and such rights were realized and the case was terminated. This is the right way. Making fuss about something before work is done on it, and saying that we want to do this [is not right because] we may not be able to do it or we may make a mistake somewhere. I believe in disseminating news and information. And I have said this repeatedly to Judiciary Head and other friends. We should inform the public opinion by proper and timely information dissemination. Timely information dissemination and in a proper way. You see that the world of today is using such progressive means of propaganda against the Islamic system and Islamic objectives and against the origin of Islam. Once they said they were against political Islam. Now they cannot tolerate the origin of Islam if they find it somewhere. Well, the enemy is using various means in this way. We should act and move in this regard with maximum awareness. In this world which is based on oppression, if we could hoist the flag of justice, the hearts of nations, even non-Muslim nations, would be attracted to us. Because everybody is thirsty for justice. The world today is thirsty for justice... Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, in Persian 1008 gmt 26 Jun 02 |
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