Ethical Principles in Dealing with the Accused Person in Judicial Tradition of Imam Ali

Criminal affairs have public dimensions and government is at least one side of this story and even when there is a private complainant, it is the government’s right and duty to come to trial of the accused people and to punish the criminals by its intervention and applying power. Therefore there will be a kind of relationship between the accused person and government. In Imam Ali’s judicial tradition we can observe some affairs related to the accused people which could be taken into account among the accused people’s rights and accordingly discuss the ethics and manner of encountering the accused people within the framework of principles (absolute, relative, and privative). Certainly, we have also observed violation of some principles such as lack of investigation with the aim of obtaining a greater prudence such as Imam’s investigation from his agents with the intention of controlling them and discovering their probable infidelity and fault.