Legal Innovation on How to Compensate Moral Damages in Crimes Leads to Retaliation (Critiques of a Judgment Rendered by12 Branch of the Provincial Appellate Court of Tehran)

One of the controversial issues in Iranian legal system and judicial precedent is the permissibility or impermissibility of compensation for moral damages through the payment of money, which has been recognized in the latest reforms. Relying on Article 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act and its notes, which have also been approved by the Guardian Council, the court can, in addition to rendering a judgment to compensate for financial damages, compensate the damages by other means, such as requiring an accused to apologize and publishing a judgment in a newspaper and so on. Believing that the principle is to compensate for moral damages and Note 2 of Article 14 of the above-mentioned Act lies outside the crimes leads to retaliation and relying on fault and failure to act in a timely manner to inform and by the relevant and related concerned organizations and development of the government's civil responsibility, the court in judgment No. 140168390002642107 dated 2/31/1401 rendered by the 12th branch of the Provencial Appellate Court of Tehran, sentenced four public and government organizations to compensation. This judgment while is bold and defensible in this respect, it is challengeable in terms of non-compliance with some legal regulations, including the method of ascertaining and attributing the accident, the method of distributing responsibility, the method of assessing the amount of damage caused and the duty to pay it continuously, etc and it is considered the weakness of the judgement.