Justice tainted by western laws ayatollah

Iran's chief prosecutor, Ayatollah Dori Najafabadi says that his country's justice is tainted by the west, and does not work.

"Justice in Iran does not work," the Ayatollah said on Friday. "People are unhappy because our penal code is tainted with principles of western law."

"If we limited ourselves to follow Islamic legislation, many criminals would not relapse, and many others, in fear, would not commit crimes."

According to the Ayatollah, a better deterrent would be punishment based on the Islamic Sharia law.

"The criminals' behaviour would be different if they were punished according to Islamic law with floggings and cutting of limbs," said the Ayatollah during an interview with Tehran's Berna news agency.

"Sharia law does not consider a prison term an effective form of punishment. It is a legacy stemming from western law," said Najafabadi.

"Criminals, instead of becoming reformed characters, actually improve their criminal techniques and as soon as they are freed, they go back to commit the same crimes," concluded the chief prosecutor.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2086088711