Cracking Down on Independent Lawyers: Stripping Protesters of Defense

The suppression of independent lawyers in the Islamic Republic, particularly during protests and in cases involving political and ideological prisoners, is a macro judicial-security strategy designed to dismantle the right to defense. In a structure where the judiciary, instead of maintaining a position of neutrality, functions effectively as an arm of the security and intelligence agencies, the presence of an independent legal defender poses a serious obstacle to the interrogators’ fabrication of narratives. Consequently, the judiciary dismantles the legal support systems of the accused by arresting, threatening, and revoking the licenses of courageous lawyers, completely eliminating any competition to advance its objectives.

Once the system puts desperate defendants and their families into an absolute legal vacuum through the suppression of independent lawyers, the second step of this plan—namely, the imposition of court-appointed and security-vetted lawyers—begins. These appointed attorneys, selected and designated by the judiciary itself, enter cases not to rescue the defendant, but to smooth the path toward heavy convictions and the issuance of death sentences. Therefore, examining the dimensions of the elimination of legal defenders is key to understanding the structure of show trials in the Revolutionary Courts.

The Deception Mechanism: Misusing Legal Formalities to Expedite Sentences

The elimination of independent lawyers transforms the environment of the Revolutionary Courts into a completely one-sided arena, allowing security agents under the guise of “court-appointed lawyers” to carry out the indictment scenario without any hindrance. By maintaining a calculated silence in the face of torture and refusing to present exculpatory evidence, these lawyers effectively hold the defendant’s substantive right to defense hostage.

The most critical stage of this sham process is neutralizing the defendant’s right to appeal; these agents deliberately burn the statutory 20-day appeal window by promptly filing pro-forma and hollow petitions. This rushed action is carried out with two security objectives: first, blocking the path for the potential entry of independent lawyers in higher stages, and second, preventing public opinion and human rights organizations from paying attention. As a result of this judicial engineering, the cases of protesters are routed quietly, as quickly as possible, directly toward the gallows or long-term imprisonment.

Objective Facts of the Arrest and Suppression of Protesters’ Independent Lawyers:

The independent legal community of Iran has paid a heavy price for defending detainees, political prisoners, and prisoners of conscience. The following statistics and cases illustrate the physical dimensions of this systematic crackdown:

• Widespread Arrests and Indeterminate Detention in Prison:
  • Bahar Sahraeian: An attorney-at-law and member of the Fars Bar Association who was arrested on May 17, 2026, precisely while performing her professional duties at the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz. Following the arraignment of charges such as “assembly and collusion” and “propaganda against the state,” she was transferred to Adelabad Prison.
  • Shima Ghousheh: A first-class attorney-at-law in Tehran who was arrested on January 17, 2026, due to her public declaration of readiness to accept the representation of protest detainees and was subjected to pressure in the solitary confinement cells of Ward 209 of Evin Prison.
  • Enayatollah Keramati (Karami): A member of the Judiciary Lawyers’ Center in Mashhad who was arrested after a raid on his residence on January 10, 2026, and transferred to Vakilabad Prison.
  • Nazanin Baradaran (Tehran), Hossein Shokri (Ilam), Zohreh Javani (Tehran), and Sepideh Taheri (Bandar Abbas): Independent lawyers who were all arrested between January and March 2026 for defending the rights of protesters and remain in prison.
  • Amir Bahadorifar and Dariush Ganjehpour Qashqai: Two attorneys-at-law from the Fars Bar Association who were arrested in Shiraz on January 22 and 25, 2026, respectively, and transferred to Adelabad Prison to thwart their legal defenses.
  • Teymour Salari: A defense attorney for political and ideological prisoners who was arrested on February 1, 2026, and remains incarcerated in Evin Prison, Tehran.

Security Case-Fabrication, Backbreaking Bails, and the Suspension of Independent Lawyers’ Licenses: The judiciary, in cooperation with intelligence agencies, deploys a multi-layered strategy to silence the legal community. While according to the law, any professional grievance, institutional stance, or administrative infraction by lawyers must be examined exclusively and expertly within the “Disciplinary Prosecutor’s Office and Court for Lawyers”, the judiciary bypasses these legal channels to initiate parallel criminal case-fabrication in the Revolutionary Courts. Through this mechanism, the legal defense provided by independent lawyers is converted into a criminal offense by attributing heavy security charges (such as assembly and collusion or propaganda against the state). Subsequently, by temporarily releasing them on backbreaking bails, the system keeps these cases “open and indeterminate” for months to serve as a permanent lever of pressure and a tool of intimidation. Concurrently, it immediately activates the mechanism of “suspension of the law license” or “judicial supervision professional bans” to completely halt the professional functioning of these lawyers even outside of prison, ensuring they lack the capacity to defend any other protester:

• • Mohammad Hadi Jafarpour, Mehdi Ansari, Mehran Ansari, Jafar Keshavarz, and Jafar Zarei: All attorneys from the Fars Bar Association who were arrested during the wave of detentions in January and February 2026. Simultaneously with issuing heavy bails, the Security Prosecutor’s Office of Shiraz issued suspension orders and temporary bans from practice for these five lawyers, cutting off their access to protesters’ cases immediately upon release.

• Amir Raeisian and Milad Panahipour: Two prominent human rights lawyers who were arrested on January 12 and 14, 2026, respectively, for exposing the legal obstacles and deprivation of the right to chosen counsel for adolescent protesters, and were transferred to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Following their temporary release on bail, their cases were forwarded to the Lawyers’ Disciplinary Prosecutor’s Office with the aim of suspending their licenses.

• • Alireza Farzaneh Jajromi: A defense lawyer for protesters in Ahvaz who, following his release on bail in March 2026, faced a judicial supervision order banning him from the legal profession until the issuance of a final verdict.

• Heavy Convictions, Exile, and the Tragedy of Suspicious Deaths:
  • Saleh Nikbakht: A 72-year-old veteran jurist and the defense attorney for the family of Mahsa Amini. Due to his academic interviews and legal objections to the Legal Medicine Organization’s report, he was sentenced to one year in prison and a two-year ban on online activities. Furthermore, his Sakharov Prize laureate plaque was confiscated at the airport.
  • Amirsalar Davoudi: A defense attorney for political prisoners who, for defending his clients, was initially sentenced to 30 years in prison. After enduring 4 years of imprisonment, he is currently on a sentence-suspension furlough under a 5-billion-Toman bail.
  • The Suspicious Tragedy of Khosrow Alikordi: A defense attorney for protesters in Mashhad. Following his conviction to one year in prison, a two-year ban from practicing law, and exile, his lifeless body was discovered under highly suspicious circumstances in his office in December 2025 (Azar 1404). Human rights activists rejected the government’s narrative of “cardiac arrest” and declared it a state-sponsored murder; this is underscored by the fact that his brother, Javad Alikordi, was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 2026 (Ordibehesht 1405) solely for seeking justice for this death.

Table of Documented Crackdowns: Systematic Repression of Independent lawyers in Iran

 The Consequence of Suppression: Imposing Court-Appointed Lawyers to Facilitate Death Sentences

When this wave of arrests clears the field of independent lawyers, the judiciary securely enforces the security agencies’ narratives without hesitation. In this climate, ordinary and nameless protest defendants are forced to accept lawyers who are, in reality, compliant employees of the system.

A stark manifestation of this tragedy is the performance of state-aligned, court-appointed lawyers, such as Mehdi Mehrabi. In the case concerning the arson of the Namjoo Basij Base in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court (presided over by Judge Salavati), instead of defending the four protesters (Mohammad Amin Bigleri, Amir Hossein Hatami, Ali Fahim, and Shahin Vahedparast Kolor), Mehrabi maintained silence and implicitly endorsed the interrogators’ accusations, thereby smoothing the path for the issuance and implementation of their death sentences. In a glaring double standard, this exact lawyer exerted maximum effort and conducted extensive media interviews for his other prominent client (Pejman Jamshidi), successfully reducing his sentence to flogging; a discrepancy that demonstrates these appointed attorneys guide defenseless protesters straight to the gallows.

Conflict with International Laws and the Responsibility of the International Community

Pursuant to Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party, the right to have access to an independent and chosen counsel is among the non-derogable principles of a fair trial. The crackdown on independent lawyers and the imposition of judiciary representatives as court-appointed counsel completely violates this international obligation, transforming the Revolutionary Courts into chambers for issuing arbitrary death sentences.

The international community, bar associations worldwide, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights must not remain silent in the face of this elimination strategy. Publicly supporting Iran’s detained lawyers, documenting the names of judges and court-appointed lawyers involved in the crackdown, and implementing targeted legal sanctions on the judicial-security organs of the Islamic Republic are vital steps to defend the final bastion of fair trial in Iran.