The Criminalization of Concealing Evidence and Its Challenges in the Law of Iran

It has been emphasized on concealing evidence in the fiqhi sources such as the verses of the holy Quran and Islamic traditions. while in spite of drawing attention to evidence as one of the important crime proving reasons in the regulations of Iran, only the false (untrue) testimony has been criminalized. Findings of this paper which have been adopted according to the descriptive-analytic method and on the basis of the library documents and sources indicate that the prohibition of concealing evidence in the Islamic jurisprudential sources is certain and acceptable. According to the Quranic and hadith evidences, Imāmiyya (Arabic: إمامیّة) fuqaha (scholars) concur with it and it has been criminalize by the most countries. But in the law of Iran, punishment has not been determined (predicated). Therefore, it is of sins but it is not counted a crime. Generally, the prohibition of torturing witness, the witness’s right of silence and the inclusion of the punishment of the false testimony on concealing it are mentioned of the the challenges of its criminalization. With respect to the fiqhi principle “التعزیر لکلّ عمل محرّم” Tazir (Punishment for crime not measuring up to the strict requirements of hadd punishments) is for every prohibited acts in Islam and in order to the occurrence of judicial justice and the unity criterion of the false testimony principles, it seems that the criminalization of concealing evidence is necessary in the law of Iran. Therefore the goal of this note is to assess the necessity of the criminalization of concealing evidence based on the fiqhi sources and national regulations of some countries as a crime against the judicial justice.