Iran's conservative-controlled parliament yesterday blocked a plan to define political crimes which would have clarified the status of political prisoners, said the student news agency ISNA. The parliament, or Majlis, blocked a proposal that asked the government to give a legal definition of political crimes.
| "They're what we say they are, that's what they are!" |
The proposal had been put forward by the reformist government before most reformists were barred from contesting elections last February and they subsequently lost their majority. Human rights activists say a legal definition of political crimes is required so that those who are convicted because of their political beliefs are not punished under common law. "If political crime was defined, many of those who are imprisoned today for undermining state security would be free today," legal expert Ali Najafi Tavana told ISNA. |