He injured a pedestrian while driving and should have been convicted to spend a month in prison according to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the judge decided to teach him a lesson. Now he is teaching school children, known in Iran as “the police mates”, the driving laws and regulations. Moreover, he should provide people with public educational and cultural services for 100 hours, totally free of charge.
The story is just a sample of the judiciary new approach. Recently, Iran's Judiciary system has focused on employing other alternatives rather than imprisonment and according to the Golestan province judiciary chief, alternative punishments replaced imprisonment in 4280 cases last year; the data implies a 49% increase in comparison to the year before that.
The cleaner of the jungles
Another driver who had caused injuries to another person was punished by the judge to clean the forests in Golestan and also repair and improve the water springs of the county.
The Natural Resources Office as well as the criminal court carefully monitors the verdict so the process is executed properly.
In a different case, where a passerby was killed in an accident, the carless driver paid the blood money to the victim’s family but he also should have been convicted to spend six months in prison. Since the driver had no criminal record, the judge replaced his six-month imprisonment with planting a thousand different trees including hornbeams, maples and oaks.
The same story has happened to another driver who was convicted to provide 200 hours of fire extinction services in Golestan province’s forests, monitored by the natural resources office and the criminal court, according to the officials.
In a totally different case, the driver was convicted to provide 100 hours of public services at Payam Noor University. He hit a passerby and paid the compensation to the victim but for what is called “public aspect” of his crime, the judge ordered him to serve at the university for free.