Journal of Research and Development in Comparative Law

Journal of Research and Development in Comparative Law

Confession in Online Criminal Proceedings (A Comparative Study of Iran, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia)

Document Type : scientific research paper

Authors
Ruhollah Akrami 1
Zarqam Narehei 2
1 Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Qom University, Qom, Iran
2 PhD student in criminal law and criminology, Faculty of Law, Qom University, Qom, Iran
10.22034/law.2025.2051061.1597
Abstract
The use of new technologies in criminal proceedings has expanded in recent years, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus.Therefore, due to the rapid advancement of new technologies and the slow pace of legislation through the legislature, and the fact that the rulings and principles are stipulated in the main laws, countries have moved towards adopting regulations and directives.Even the UAE, which recently revised its federal law on electronic proceedings, has not established separate regulations from traditional proceedings in terms of the principles and rulings governing proceedings. In this regard, Jordan uses modern technologies with a maximalist approach and without restrictions in the stages of prosecution, investigation, and proceeding.Iran, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have also attempted to regulate how online hearings are held by adopting directives and guidelines.The UAE has also begun implementing electronic hearings by adopting the Criminal Procedure Code of 2022. However, the possibility of using online proceedings raises important challenges, including whether a confession made during an online hearing can be used as the basis for a judgment.If a judge renders a guilty judgment based on such a confession, is this conviction equivalent to a judgment issued in an in-person trial.In this paper, while stating that Article 659 of the Criminal Procedure Code does not permit the holding of an online criminal trial, it is maintained that, using a descriptive-analytical method, that from a jurisprudential and legal perspective, there is no obstacle to issuing a judgment based on a confession obtained from an online trial. Finally, due to the metadata shortcomings and challenges such as the judge's insufficient capacity to fully observe the defendant's body language, network security weaknesses and hardware and software defects etc., it is suggested that the scope of the use of online proceedings be subject to the consent of the litigants and limited to specific and less important crimes, so that in the coming years, with the further development of hardware and software infrastructure, its scope can be expanded.
Keywords
new technologies
online proceedings
confession
electronic proceedings
electronic evidence

Subjects

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