The President of Iran's Supreme Court on the Purge of the Bar Association and the Role of Lawyers

During a press conference held in Tehran, on January 1st, 1981, Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, the President of Iran's Supreme Court, talked about the necessity to purge the Bar Association and discussed a defendant's right to counsel. Iran's Bar Association had issued several petitions against the absence of due process and human rights abuses in the post-revolutionary judicial system. Ayatollah Beheshti's statements illustrate the growing pressure on lawyers and human rights advocates in Iran in 1981.