Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s next president, has been selected for about a month. Tehran tried to portray this as the result of a popular ballot, but the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), network in Iran claims that only around 10% of the population voted. The election was preceded by a widespread boycott effort.
Selection of Raisi as next president
While the entire selection process in Iran under the mullahs’ government is undemocratic, Raisi waged a campaign that was practically uncontested thanks to the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s personal support.
Henchman of 1988
The Iranian opposition, The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) has long referred to Raisi as the “henchman of 1988” because of his leading role in the massacre of political prisoners that year, which primarily targeted the MEK on the basis of a fatwa issued by Ruhollah Khomeini declaring them enemies of God.
Over 30,000 people were killed in the massacre, and Raisi, as a member of the Tehran “death commission”, is arguably responsible for the majority of them.
Nationwide protest
Iran was shaken by a nationwide protest in November 2019 that spanned approximately 200 cities and villages and contained anti-regime slogans such as “death to the dictator.” After facing down those slogans on a comparable scale less than two years before, Khamenei ordered immediate response, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded by opening fire on masses of protesters, killing 1,500 people in just a few days.
The regime’s judiciary tortured hundreds, if not thousands, of detainees, according to a detailed report by Amnesty International and intelligence networks linked to the MEK. As per the report, more than 12,000 people have been directly affected by the domestic terror campaign as a result of their arrests in connection with the uprising.
Raisi’s history of cruelty
All of this confirms Raisi’s history of cruelty, as he was the head of the judiciary at the time of the crackdown in 2019, having been nominated by Khamenei earlier that year.
MEK-affiliated “Resistance Units” disseminated slogans in public locations and staged illegal demonstrations in 2020 and 2021, urging all Iranians to “vote for regime change.”
The MEK claimed the work of over 1,200 journalists as evidence that polling places were largely vacant on June 18 and that more than 90% of eligible voters either stayed at home or cast invalid ballots. As Tehran prepares for its presidential transition, it is critical that the entire international community pay attention to that message.
“We urge the UN Security Council to arrange for the international prosecution of Mullah Raisi and holding him accountable for crimes against humanity, and to refuse to accept his presence at the next session of the UN General Assembly,” the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi said during the Free Iran World Summit on July 10-12.
“In terms of the international community, we ask that it recognize the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow this regime.”
and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube
