A bill being drafted by the cabinet’s legal committee will provide protection from prosecution to those who collect information from unclassified and legal sources; and provides punishment for those who prevent legitimate access to unclassified information A bill being drafted by the cabinet’s legal committee will provide protection from prosecution to those who collect information from unclassified and legal sources.
The bill is a reaction to the judiciary’s prosecution of people like Abbas Abdi on spying charges, because all he had collected was news and data printed by domestic newspapers, Tehran-based lawyer and human rights activist Mohammad Hossein Aghassi tells Radio Farda, adding the bill recognizes the people’s right of access to information and protects sources of unclassified information from prosecution.
The bill also provides punishment for those who prevent legitimate access to unclassified information. However, he adds that he is not optimistic about the bill’s passage in today’s conservative Majles. Furthermore, he says there are already many laws on books against unlawful arrests and searches and seizures, but nobody has been prosecuted for unlawful arrest or torture of detainees.
