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Will Robinson

Professor Laura Talvitie

Comparative Criminal Justice

8/22/2011

Iran is a country in the southern and western Asia. The name Iran has been in use

natively since the Sassanian era and come in to use internationally in 1935, before which the

country was known to the western world as Persia. Iran is the 18th

largest country in the world

in area. Iran is 636,372 square miles. The population is around 78 million people. Iran is

bordered by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a Literal state of the Caspian

Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Irans direct neighbors to the north.

Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and

the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. The capital city is

Tehran.

Many people dont really think about it, but there are some similarities between Iran

and the United States. First Iran uses the executive branch. Every four years, the head of the

Iran executive power is directly elected by people as president. Such a president can become

candidate for a second successive term, but not more than two terms. Some of the responsibly

that their president has is Signs and supervises the implementation of laws passed by the

Majlis, Signs treaties and other international agreements ratified Presides over the National

Security Councilified by the Majlis, Receives the credentials of foreign ambassadors, and

Endorses those of Iranian ambassadors sent abroad.

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Iran also uses the legislative branch. Two governmental bodies form Iran legislative

power Iranian parliament (Majlis) and the Guardian Council. All the legislations must be first

approved by the Majlis and then be ratified by the Guardian Council. In Iran government, all

members of parliament (290 MPs), are elected by public vote for a four year term. The

Guardian Council first decides who among the candidates is qualified to become an MP and

who is not. Then, those whose qualifications are approved, run for the elections. Religious

minorities, Christians (Armenians and Assyrians), Jews and Zoroastrians, have five

representatives in the Majlis. There are no gender restrictions to become a member of the

Majlis. The Majlis has a steering board that consists of a speaker, two deputy speakers who run

the meetings in his absence and a number of secretaries and provisions administrators.

Iran also uses a judicial branch, the 1979 Constitution of the Islamic Republic called for

the judiciary to be an independent power, and charges it with investigating and passing

judgment on grievances; supervising the proper enforcement of laws; uncovering crimes;

prosecuting, punishing, and chastising criminals; taking suitable measures to prevent crime and

reform criminals. The head of the judiciary is to be a just Mujtahid appointed by the Supreme

Leader and serve for a period of five years. He is responsible for the establishment of the

organizational structure of the judicial system; drafting judiciary bills for parliament; hiring,

firing promoting and assigning judges. Judges cannot be dismissed without a trial. Judicial

authority is constitutionally vested in the Supreme Court and the four-member High Council of

the Judiciary, according to Hunt Janin and Andre Kahlmeyer.According to Article 160 of the

constitution the Minister of Justice owes responsibility in all matters concerning the

relationship between the judiciary, on the one hand, and the executive and legislative

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branches, on the other hand. The head of the judiciary may delegate full authority to the

Minister of Justice in financial and administrative areas and for employment of personnel other

than judges.The minister is to be chosen by the president from a list of candidates proposed by

the head of the judiciary. The head of the Supreme Court and Prosecutor-General are also to be

just mujtahids nominated by the head of the judiciary in consultation with the judges of the

Supreme Court and serving for a period of five years.

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iranwas adopted in 1979. This was replacing

the constitution of 1906. It is nicknamed the hybrid of authority. This constitution has

fourteen different chapters in it. A little of the over view on this constitution is in chapter one it

is just about basic principles like the leaders, goals, the government, and principles. In the

other chapters they talk about foreign policies, the rights for the people and the rights to

practice other religions, gender rights, military and laws.

Iran's prison system was centralized and drastically expanded by the Islamic Republic.

Under the Shah prisons had been administered separately by SAVAK, the urban police, and the

gendarmerie. The new regime entrusted their management to a supervisory council of three

clerics. In Tehran, all four prisons where political dissidents were kept were expanded. Evin was

enlarged with two new blocks containing six wards and six hundred solitary cells so it could

accommodate an additional 6000 inmates. Qezel Hesar was also expanded. Construction of the

new Gohar Dasht prison had been started under the shah, it was completed with hundreds of

solitary cells and large wards housing more than 8000 inmates. Despite all this new capacity,

Iran's prisons were seriously overcrowded by 1983. Komiteh prison, built for 500, had 1500

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inmates; Evin Prison, built for 1200, had 15,000; Qezel Hesar, built for 10,000, had 15,000; and

Gohar Dasht prison, built for 8000, had 16,000. Meanwhile, "Qasr, which had housed 1500, in

1978, had more than 6000.

According to Luiza Maria Gontowska, the Iranian court structure includes Revolutionary

Courts, Public Courts, Courts of Peace and Supreme Courts of Cassation. There are 70 branches

of the Revolutionary Courts. Public courts consist of Civil, Special Civil, First class criminal and

Second Class Criminal. Courts of Peace are divided into Ordinary courts, and Independent

Courts of Peace, and Supreme Courts of Cassation.

When people think of the Middle East they think of terrorist and war, also they look at

some of these countries as poor and extremely harsh. Iran is not poor, however they are strict

and if someone commits a crime they will be severely punished. The United States also shares

these same things that Iran has. There are more interesting facts of Iran that shares similar

traits to the United States.