Imam Khamenei: Judiciary Branch should defend people's rights, legal freedoms

During a morning meeting with heads and officials, from throughout Iran's National Judicial system, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, focused on the qualifications and high legal status of the judiciary and its impact on the country's large scale management. He deemed it an evolutionary perspective among all spheres of the indispensable judiciary, the Supreme Leader held: "The judiciary should be a pioneer in establishing public rights within the society and any area when necessary, it must firmly defend the rights of the people, and confront those who violate laws."

The Supreme Leader called for a revolutionary and jihadi perspective in planning and action within the judiciary. He pointed to the legal status of the system, the system's influence on the other systems, and general issues of the country by saying, "The Constitutional states are the responsibility of the judiciary; monitoring of adequate law enforcement and supervision over proper implementation of policies are a few of those responsibilities: The Administrative Court of Justice and the State Audit Office, as the two main arms of the judiciary, are responsible for these two important tasks."

Emphasizing on the utilization of legal capacity by the judicial system, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution added: Public rights and supporting the legitimate freedom of the people are important duties of the judiciary system; the judiciary should be the pioneer, in regards to these issues, confronting opponents of public rights on any level.

He further mentioned that in order to boost and develop an organization that all consider salvageable, promising and peaceful, the judiciary must seriously condemn violations of the law. Also, praising the work of anonymous inspectors from different cities, who aim at exposing and encountering violations, he went on to say, "Increase inspections as much as possible, and improve the judiciary from inside."

Ayatollah Khamenei touched on punishing perpetrators while preserving the dignity of their family members. He reminded the audience: "Of course, where the dignity of the system is in danger, protecting the dignity of the Islamic system becomes more important, because people are observant, they should not feel like the judiciary system does not effectively deal with all offenders."

He stated, "Encouraging judges to be fair and righteous is complementary to the punishment of perpetrators," further elaborating on the notion by offering the following point: "Make the righteous, brave, decisive, fair and hard-working judges, who are highly virtuous in making wise judgments--with no personal intention or consideration--famous in society."



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