Judiciary Chief Larijani's Directive on Implementation of the Drug Reform Measure
In implementing the Islamic Consultative Assembly’s Law Incorporating a Single Article to the Law for the Fight Against Illicit Drugs of October 4, 2017, and mindful of the necessity and urgency of expediting such implementation in cases where previously issued sentences are subject to commutation, I call the attention of all judicial authorities to the following:
1) In this Directive, the term “Law” shall refer to the Expediency Council’s “Law for the Fight Against Illicit Drugs of 1988 with its Subsequent Amendments and Addenda”, and the terms “Single Article” shall refer to the Islamic Consultative Assembly’s “Law Incorporating a Single Article to the Law for the Fight Against Illicit Drugs” of October 4, 2017.
2) Sentence Implementation Judges shall, as soon as possible, examine all cases falling under Article 10(b) of the Islamic Penal Code of 2013, giving priority to death penalty cases and halting the implementation of death sentences while the case is under review. In the event that implementation of the Single Article leads to a reduced sentence, a detailed explanation therefore as well as the case file itself shall be dispatched to the Revolutionary Court or the substitute court that had issued a final sentence in the case.
In the event that the condemned individual requests a reduced sentence on his/her own initiative, the Sentence Implementation Judge shall also include such request when sending the case to the aforementioned court.
Note: The terms “the court that has issued a final sentence” refer to the Revolutionary Court that has issued the sentence, whether such sentence has become final subsequent to the expiration of the legal deadline, or subsequent to confirmation by the Chief Judge or a Branch President of the Supreme Court, or the State Prosecutor General, as the case may be.
3) Prisoners covered by the Article, may submit their request to the relevant prison warden. In such an event, the prison warden shall submit their exact requests to the relevant Sentence Implementation Judge as soon as possible. The Sentence Implementation Judge shall submit the request along with the case file for review to the court that has issued a final sentence in the case.
4) The court that has issued a final sentence shall examine the submitted case as soon as possible, and if it finds that the case is within the purview of Article 10(b) of the Islamic Penal Code, it shall apply the Single Article thereto and issue an amended sentence, reduced accordingly.
5) Non-applicability of Article 10(b) of the Islamic Penal Code to individuals who are the subjects of a final sentence of death or life imprisonment issued prior to the Single Article coming into effect, must be so stated in a memorandum signed by the Sentence Implementation Judge, and approved by the Prosecutor, and entered into the case file. Implementation of the death sentence is prohibited absent this procedure.
6) Instances of utilizing children and young adults under the age of 18 or persons who are legally insane or incompetent (non compos mentis) to commit the crime stated in Paragraph (b) of the Single Article, includes cases where the perpetrator of the aforementioned crimes uses such persons as a tool to carry out the crime imputed to him, similar to the provisions of Article 128 of the Islamic Penal Code of 2013, or cases such as employing pubescent individuals under the age of 18 or hiring them as a mercenary.
7) Pursuant to Paragraph (d) of the Single Article, the importation, exportation, sending, production, manufacture, distribution, sale or presenting for sale, of more than 50 kilograms of drugs as described in Article 4, or more than 2 kilograms of drugs as described in Article 8, and the purchase, possession, hiding, or transportation of more than 3 kilograms of drugs as described in Article 8, shall be subject to the death penalty.
8) Persons who have committed the crimes described at the top of this Single Article prior to its coming into effect, in amounts more than the maximum provided in Paragraph (d), and do not meet the requirements of Paragraphs (a), (b), and (c), shall benefit from the reduced sentence prescribed at the top of the Article.
9) Persons who have committed one of the crimes provided for in this Single Article prior to its coming into effect for whom no sentence has yet been issued and in whose case applying the Single Article is more advantageous and beneficial, applying Article 10 of the Islamic Penal Code, the court shall issue a sentence observing said Article, and in the event that an already issued sentence is in the appellate phase, the Supreme Court shall overturn the sentence and remand the case to a similar court for a do novo hearing.
10) In the event that the persons sentenced to death have been pardoned by the Supreme Leader prior to the Single Article coming into effect, and their sentence has been reduced to life imprisonment, they shall fall under Article 10 (b) of the Islamic Penal Code.
11) In the event that implementation of the Single Article causes the life imprisonment sentence of the convicted felon to be reduced to Second Degree Ta’zir punishment, if the accessories of the relevant crime benefit from a reduced sentence because of the principal’s reduced sentence, they too shall be covered by Article 10(b) of the Islamic Penal Code.
12) In implementing the Note to the Single Article, in the event that the legal punishment prescribed for the crime is more than five years, the court shall observe the following points in issuing a sentence:
a) It is prohibited to issue a sentence lower than the prescribed minimum legal punishment.
b) In the event that the sentence issued is the minimum sentence prescribed by law, with the exception of the reduction provided for in Article 38 of the Law and the Supreme Leader’s pardon provided for in Principle 110, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution, all other legal reductions such as suspension of sentence, conditional parole, sentence reduction in accordance with Article 442 of the Law for the Rules of Criminal Procedure, shall be prohibited; and in the event that the sentence issued is more than the minimum sentence prescribed by law for the crime, the court may, upon serving the minimum sentence prescribed by law, suspend all or portions of the remaining sentence.
Prosecutors and heads of the judiciary in various jurisdictions have the duty and responsibility to ensure implementation of this Directive. The State Prosecutor General shall supervise and ensure the proper implementation of this Directive and, after the passage of three months, present a report to the Head of the Judiciary on the operation and progress of the implementation of the Single Article.