Lawless in Iran

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"



Unfortunately, life is mirroring literature.



Seven lawyers in Tabriz and Mashhad who had been representing young Iranians detained in post-presidential election protests have been killed by the Iranian authorities in recent days, according to sources in Iran.



Their deaths have deterred other lawyers from taking detainees' cases, they added. . . .



In Tabriz, Iran's fourth-largest city, the bodies of five lawyers were returned to their families earlier this week, the sources said. The five had been representing some of the hundreds of Iranians detained in the northwestern city during the post-election protests. They were then themselves accused of disrupting security and encouraging unethical actions against the regime, and were sentenced to three years each in jail.



Three of them then died from injuries suffered during their detention. They were so badly beaten that their families could barely recognise their faces, this reporter was told.



The other two--prominent figures in the local community--were executed, having been sentenced to death on trumped-up charges of drug possession, the sources said.



It's a useful reminder of the evil of the Iranian regime--and a reminder that a society without lawyers is a society without law.



And to me what is most shocking is that I always considered Iran to be a lawful country -- perhaps not laws I could support but a place where there were laws that were followed.



As Isaiah Berlin points out there can be a tyranny of oppressive laws but at least those laws are knowable. Here is seems that for all the pretence of Shariah, Iran's government is now fundamentally lawless.



It begins to remind me of the last days of apartheid where the system was breaking down such that the pass laws were not enough and goon squads were needed to maintain the government.





(Thanks to Mark Persaud for the story)