The Effects of Violating the Accused’s Right to Silence in the Iranian Criminal Justice Process

Abstract

The accused’s right to silence, as one of the fundamental guarantees of a fair trial, plays a decisive role in preventing the acquisition of unlawful evidence and in preserving human dignity. Although Iran’s Code of Criminal Procedure, in recent years, has explicitly recognized this right, its violation during the preliminary investigation stage remains a prevalent phenomenon. The central question of this study is what effects the violation of the accused’s right to silence has on the evidentiary value of confessions and other criminal evidence, and what enforcement mechanisms the Iranian legal system has envisaged to address such violations. Using a descriptive–analytical method and a jurisprudential–legal approach, this article explains the concept of violating the right to silence and its manifestations, and examines the legal consequences arising from such violations. The findings indicate that breaching the right to silence seriously undermines the validity of the accused’s confession and may also affect the legality of other evidence obtained. At the same time, the weakness of legislative and executive enforcement mechanisms has led, in many instances, to the reduction of the right to silence to a merely formal or symbolic right.