Accounting to the report by The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency has sparked outrage on all ends of the political spectrum. On the one hand, criminals like Syrian tyrant Bashar Al-Assad, former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrollah congratulated Raisi on his election as President of Iran.
The international community, on the other hand, has voiced concerns about the appointment of a mass murderer.
“That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance, and torture is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in a statement on Saturday.
Raisi was a crucial figure in the 1988 killing of political prisoners, according to Callamard, and as head of the judiciary before becoming president, he “presided over a spiraling crackdown on human rights.”
Raisi must be “investigated for his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law,” according to Callamard.
“It is concerning that the elected president has not clarified his own past or distanced himself clearly from human rights abuses,” Bärbel Kofler, the German government’s human rights commissioner, tweeted. Human rights are non-negotiable, and Iran has pledged to uphold them on a global scale.”
“The voice of the Iranian people who are calling for freedom and human rights must be heard!” Kofler added.
Raisi’s role in the 1988 executions of political prisoners was reported by numerous major news outlets. The executions were first brought to light in 2016 when the Iranian Resistance initiated a campaign to expose the atrocities and bring the culprits to justice.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) gathered many records about the deaths and burial locations of the victims of the 1988 massacre after considerable labor and risk. Eyewitnesses, survivors, and families of the genocide victims contributed stories and accounts of their ordeal.
Raisi was recognized as a major member of the “death commission,” a group of officials that summoned the prisoners and sentenced them to death in a matter of minutes.
Amnesty International produced a complete report on the massacre in 1988 in 2018. Seven United Nations Special Rapporteurs published a letter in 2020 calling for a probe into the 1988 massacre.
Raisi and other Iranian officials engaged in the crime were blacklisted by the US government in 2019.
Raisi has also been sanctioned by the European Union for his human rights abuses.
Western powers are therefore in a bind. They’re negotiating with a dictatorship whose new president is on their blacklist and is well-known for his human rights violations around the world. Anyone who sits at the table with them during the negotiations will be representing him directly.
here is no longer a façade of “moderate” figures to hide behind in order to legitimize government concessions. They must choose whether to live up to their own values or continue to deny the regime’s homicidal nature for the sake of political and economic gain.
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