mental illness and burden of proof in the iranian system of criminal justice

as a rule, like other criminal legal systems, insane people are exempted from criminal liability in iranian criminal law. the previous penal code, replaced in 1982, had classified the mentally ill people into two groups. those completely insane were totally free from criminal liability and those suffering from less serious mental illnesses benefit to some extent liable to a certain lenient degree. while article 51 of the islamic penal code provides that insanity, to any degree, exempts perpetrators from criminal liability. this article tries first to discuss the criminal liability of insane and mental ill people in iran. then, the burden of proving the sanity of perpetrators will be discussed.