The head of the Iranian judiciary issued an order yesterday banning the use of torture and other abuses: an unprecedented acknowledgement of the regime's record of repression.
"Any torture to extract a confession is banned and the confessions extracted through torture are not legitimate and legal," Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi's order to the police, judges and intelligence officials says.
The 15-point directive says the "blindfolding, restraining, pestering and insulting of detainees must be avoided during arrest, interrogation and investigation".
The order merely reiterates rights contained in the Iranian constitution, but it amounts to confirmation by a leading member of the theocracy of rampant legal abuses.
"There have been some implicit words before, but explicitly in an order, this is the first time," said Reza Yousefian, a reformist MP in the outgoing parliament.
"We should welcome this kind of order, regardless of the motivation behind it."
He said it seemed that the conservative establishment, which won back control of the parliament in the disputed elections in February, wished to present a more moderate face domestically and to European governments.
Echoing the view of human rights lawyers, he said he doubted that the order would be fully carried out. But the public declaration represented some kind of step forward.
The order coincides with a visit to Iran by British judges, and recent court decisions that adopted a relatively lenient approach to journalists accused of insulting state officials.
It says the accused has the right to a lawyer, must be detained only on the basis of clear legal charges and must be given the chance to verify written confessions.
Families should be informed of a defendant's legal status, detainees should not be taken to secret locations, and only relevant documents and material should be confiscated by the police.
Such fundamental civil rights are regularly denied to political activists, students, journalists and others who dare to criticise the ruling clergy publicly.
In violation of the constitution and the directive, the regime continues to hold more than 30 political prisoners in the notorious Evin prison in north Tehran, and an unknown number of dissidents in other jails.
Iran's largely powerless moderate president, Mohammad Khatami, acknowledged as much in comments published yesterday by the English-language daily Iran. "Absolutely, we do have political prisoners. There are those who are in prison for their beliefs," he was quoted as saying.
Meeting young people on Tuesday, he described Iran as part of a region that had failed to fulfil aspirations for freedom and democracy. "We are living in the east and face despotic governments, humiliating societies and centuries of destroyed hopes," he said.
Last week the UN human rights commission chose for the second year running not to censure Iran,which conservative newspapers greeted as a vindication of the republic.