Abstract Jurisprudential and Legal Analysis of the Defendant’s Silence during theProcess of Judicial Investigation

The silence of defendant in the process of judicial investigation, which is sometimes referred to as the right of silence, is in fact adoption of a policy that in some cases can mislead the criminal investigations and would serve as an obstacle before the uncovering of the truth. On the one hand, according to national statutes and international treaties, the defendants have the right to remain silent before the questions that are asked in the court and on the other hand, Article 38 of Iran’s Constitution forbiddens all types of inquisition under torture … and Article 587 of Islamic Penal Code has determined punishment as a criminal sanction for the criminal. We need also to take into consideration the stipulated definitions of the Executor of Law in Article 167 of Constitution concerning the expression of the verdict of every litigation by the court along with aforementioned statutes. Then, there is no way but taking the silence of the defendant to be temporarily voluntary as it has its origin in the individual and social freedoms and criminal codes of Iran and international treaties. This will establish criminal justice in the society and let the ethics to be observed in the society in the highest degree. In the present essay it was sought to discuss different views regarding silence from various points of view.