UK Offence Report

Supply of telecommunications monitoring equipment etc to Iran

article 3D of The Iran (Restrictive Measures) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2012 (revoked)

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3D Any person who, except under the authority of

a licence granted by the Governor—

a supplies or delivers;

b agrees to supply or deliver; or

c does any act calculated to promote the delivery of, telecommunications monitoring equipment, technology or software, directly or indirectly, to any person in Iran, or for use in Iran, shall be guilty of an offence under this Order, unless they prove that they did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that the equipment, technology or software in question were to be supplied or delivered to

a person in, or for use in, Iran.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
Fault element
Objective fault
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened and that it fell below the standard the provision sets. That is an objective test - what a reasonable person in the same position would have done, not what this defendant actually thought.

What a person personally believed or intended is not the question; the standard is what was reasonable.

The provision gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: objective standard in the offence-creating words: reasonable cause to suspect.

The defence, as drafted

se in Iran, shall be guilty of an offence under this Order, unless they prove that they did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that the equipment, technology or software in question were to be supplied or delivered to a person in, or for use in, Iran.

What would breach article 3D?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Selling the goods under the Iran (Restrictive Measures) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2012 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
30 May 2012
In force from
28 June 2012
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

The Order amends the Iran (Restrictive Measures) (Overseas Territories) Order 2011. That Order gave effect in the Overseas Territories to the measures adopted by the European Union in Council Regulation (EU) No. 359/2011 (“the 2011 Regulation”) which imposed restrictive measures on certain persons complicit in human rights violations in Iran. This Order gives effect to the amendments to the 2011 Regulation adopted by the Council of the European Union in Council Decision 2012/168 (CFSP) of 23rd March 2012 and implemented in Council Regulation (EU) No. 264/2012 (“the 2012 Regulation”) of 23rd March 2012. The amendments incorporate into the 2011 Regulation a prohibition on the sale, supply, transfer or export to Iran of equipment which may be used for internal repression. The amendments also introduce additional restrictive measures, namely a prohibition on the sale, supply, transfer or export of telecommunications monitoring equipment, technology or software to any person in Iran or for use in Iran and related prohibitions on technical assistance, brokering services, financing and financial assistance. The substantive provisions of this Order include the following: Article 5 requires the Governor to publish lists of EU restricted goods and telecommunications monitoring equipment, technology and software in the Gazette. Article 6 introduces two new substantive restrictive measures. First, there is a prohibition on the supply, delivery or export to Iran, or for use in Iran, of equipment which may be used for internal repression, as listed in Annex III to the 2011 Regulation (as amended by the 2012 Regulation). Secondly, there is a prohibition on the supply, delivery or export of telecommunications monitoring equipment, technology or software, as listed in Annex IV to the 2011 Regulation (as amended by the 2012 Regulation) to any person in Iran, or for use in Iran, except under licence granted by the Governor. The provision of technical assistance, brokering services, financing or financial assistance in relation to those items is prohibited, and so is the provision of telecommunication or internet monitoring or interception services to the government of Iran or related entities.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source