Cartoon by Homa Eskandari
Iran Election: Don’t Ignore Ebrahim Raisi’s Gross Rights Violations
CHRI: Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi should be investigated for crimes against humanity, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.
“Raisi is a pillar of a system that jails, tortures, and kills people for daring to criticize state policies,” said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.
“Instead of running for president, he should be tried in an impartial court and held accountable for his role in the extrajudicial executions of thousands of prisoners,” Ghaemi added.
Appointed as judiciary chief by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in March 2019, Raisi has played key roles in the politically motivated executions and unjust imprisonments of countless Iranians over the last three decades.
In 1988, Raisi was appointed to a four-man “death committee” by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, which paved the way for at least 4,500-5,000 prisoners to be executed and buried in unmarked mass and individual graves, based on the committee’s determination of their “loyalty” to the newly established Islamic Republic. These prisoners had already been tried and were serving their issued prison sentences.
At that time, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was briefly the heir-apparent to the supreme leader, condemned the killings, saying in an audio recording: “I believe this is the greatest crime committed in the Islamic Republic since the [1979] revolution and history will condemn us for it…. History will write you down as criminals.”
No one in Iran has ever been held accountable for the killings. Instead, state agents have harassed and threatenedvictims’ relatives for demanding investigations and trying to locate their loved ones’ remains, while the death committee members were appointed to various high-level government positions in the ensuing years.
UN human rights experts’ call for accountability regarding the 1988 mass executions was communicated to the Iranian government in September 2020.
“We are concerned the situation may amount to crimes against humanity,” said the UN experts, adding that if the Iranian government continued to refuse to investigate those responsible, the international community should “establish an international investigation.” >>>
"Don’t Ignore Ebrahim Raisi’s Gross Rights Violations"
How about having a candidate without "Gross” Rights Violations so people can actually consider it . If you found one within the IRI inner circle and get the approval to run, then people ought to consider to participate in this election, otherwise it is a Selection and ought to be boycotted.