A former French Foreign Minister has called for an international probe into a 1988 massacre in Iran.
Bernard Kouchner, French foreign minister from 2007 to 2010 under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, told POLITICO that the Iranian massacre should be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague as a crime against humanity.
Kouchner, also a top human rights lawyer, said: “It’s a crime against humanity and must be taken into account by the International Criminal Court. The entire international community has a responsibility to shed light on these events and ensure that the criminals behind them face an investigation.”
These comments followed the leak of an audio recording which revealed just how far the Iranian Regime went to eradicate their political opposition. The prisoners were subjected to ad hoc tribunals- sometimes even after their jail sentence had finished.
William Bourdon, a French lawyer for Transparency International, said: “This is a crime against humanity of great magnitude. The International Criminal Court has prosecuted crimes that were of smaller magnitude, but there is no doubt this would fit their definition.”
Iranian Resistance members released the names of those Regime officials who were involved in the massacre and still hold important positions in the government to this day like Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, current justice minister and Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court of Judges.
Bourdon said: “We call on the international community to shed light on these events, though we do not underestimate the obstacles. There are tools that can help us end this insolent impunity. There is nothing impossible about making an ad hoc tribunal to address this case. The question needs to be taken up by governments.”
