Iran's pro-reform parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation giving defendants the automatic right to have their lawyers present in court for the first time since the Islamic revolution.
MPs voted by a large majority to adopt the measure to allow those on trial the right to "consult or call the services of a lawyer at all stages of an inquiry or trial" and to have defense present in the courtroom.
Deputies speaking in favor of the law said lawyers needed to "truly defend their clients, which is no threat to the Islamic regime." The debate was carried live on state radio.
The measure was approved on first reading in August but had been sent back to the legislature after further work in committee.
Defendants have not uniformly been allowed access to lawyers, who themselves have not always been allowed into courtrooms during the trials of their clients.
The pro-reform parliament, which took office in May after ousting the longtime conservative majority at the polls, has said it wants to modify the penal code put in place in 1996.
The reform majority has also repeatedly expressed its wish to change the judicial system to revitalize the roles of the prosecutor and judicial police.
Iran in 1994 introduced a first reform of the system with the introduction of a network of general courts aimed at speeding up trials and simplifying the work of the judiciary. But the reforms did not have the intended effect.
Reformists, who have been under heavy pressure from the conservative-dominated judiciary, have regularly accused the courts of acting as prosecutor, judge and jury -- TEHRAN (AFP)
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