منهاج الإمام علي في التحقيق الجنائي

Abstract

Since investigating something is trying to find out the facts about the truth, criminal investigation is a set of certain procedures for a committed crime in order to: (1) identify the unknown perpetrator; (2) and know how innocence or convicted is a known perpetrator by using legal means used by the investigator to find out the facts about the incident being investigated and keeping away from the illegal means that make the accused confess committing a crime s/he has not really committed. Therefore, this study has been conducted to identify the method of investigation adopted by Imam Ali before making judgments on criminal cases, after the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) prayed for Imam Ali when he sent him to Yemen as a judge and gave him instructions needed for investigation so that he could make accurate judgments. The study findings were as follows: (1) Imam Ali has carried out investigation procedures including laboratory work and interrogation publicly before the adversaries and others; (2) though Imam Ali followed the rule of openness in the investigation procedures, investigation procedures were not completely open as he legislated the rule of conducting investigation with the absence of some of the adversaries and then announced the results of the interrogated; (3) Imam Ali is considered the first one to achieve the guaranty of  investigation codification; (4) Imam Ali is considered the first to separate people under investigation whether they were witnesses or accused, and the first one who separated between the adversary from his witnesses; (5) Imam Ali used the means of preaching the accused under investigation; (6) Imam Ali used suggestion with the accused in order to persuade the accused to tell the truth and then ascertain the veracity of his saying; and (7) Imam Ali used the menace means with the accused under investigation if s/he is determined to deny the truth despite the evidence against the accused, but he did not use this means in case there is no evidence.