Iran's hardline judiciary ordered a ban on the use...

Iran's hardline judiciary ordered a ban on the use of torture which human rights groups said the Islamic Republic's security organisations routinely used to extract confessions. Iran's constitution specifically outlaws the use of torture of detainees. But several attempts by the reformist-dominated parliament to pass a bill banning torture had been blocked by a constitutional watchdog run by religious hardliners. "Any torture to extract confession is banned and the confessions extracted through torture are not legitimate and legal," judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi said in a 15-point directive to judiciary. Rights lawyers and political activists said the statement was a tacit admission that torture was still prevalent. Amnesty International welcomed the news but questioned its logic. "Amnesty International certainly welcomes the reported statement that Iran will now seek to adhere to its own laws regarding torture. They have to start implementing their own laws which already ban torture," a spokeswoman said. There was no clear reason for the announcement's timing. Iran's rights record had been routinely criticised by Western governments. The European Union had been involved in a human rights dialogue with Iran for about two years. But European officials privately acknowledged the talks had achieved little save a suspension on the use of stoning to execute women. Shahroudi instructed officials that "blindfolding, restraining, pestering and insulting of detainees must be avoided during arrest, interrogation and investigation". He emphasised that detainees could not be deprived of their right to a lawyer, unnecessary detentions must be avoided and confessions must be written and verified by the accused.