5 July 2021
To: The governments around the world, European Union, and UN Human Rights Council
Raisi, the president of the Islamic regime in Iran, must be put on trial for his crimes against humanity!
A murderer is being handpicked as a president of the Islamic regime in Iran!
Once again, the Islamic regime organised another bogus and so-called election on 18 June 2021. Once again, expectedly, the regime pulled the name of its own candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, and announced that he won an election in Iran. However, announcing Raisi has met with fierce condemnations by the human rights advocates and organisations including Amnesty International, Mr Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and Geoffrey Robertson a human rights barrister. These condemnations were echoed by the reaction of the media to this sham election across the world.
Prior to the charade of the so-called election, people in Iran, including families of political prisoners, started to openly demonstrate their outrage, frustrations, and opposition in the strongest terms against the deception of the election through social media. They announced they will boycott what the Islamic regime called an election and will not vote because they do not recognise any of the presidential candidates as true representatives of the people in Iran. The families of political prisoners announced, loud and clear, that they do not vote for the killers of their children, and their vote is to overthrow the Islamic regime. The general public in Iran has been outraged that Raisi, who is responsible for executing thousands of people, is now a president. This is a serious miscarriage of justice. Elections have never been a fair and free practice under the Islamic regime in the past 42 years. This time is also the same, a murderer becomes a president.
Raisi is a mass murderer who has been committing crimes against humanity since 1981. Prior to being announced as a so-called president, Raisi has been in charge of the judiciary system, which is responsible for arresting, torturing and, executing thousands of dissidents over the past 41 years.
Please see the following examples, which are only a drop in the ocean, of crimes against humanity committed by Raisi:
- In the summer of 1988 Ebrahim Raisi was Tehran’s deputy prosecutor and member of the “death committee”, when more than 5000 political prisoners were executed in only 3-4 weeks and then their bodies were dumped in mass graves, never to be found. After 33 years, many families still do not know where their loved ones are buried. Some families have been arrested and tortured only because they are demanding to know the truth about why their loved ones were executed in 1988. Until now, no one within the Islamic regime, including Raisi, has been charged for the massacre of 1988. In one of his recent interviews at the end of June 2021, Raisi publicly defended the massacre of thousands of political prisoners and claimed that it was “one of the proud achievements of the system” and that he was “defending the human rights”.
- Under his power as the head of the Judiciary, the Islamic regime carried out the crackdown on the protesters in November 2019, when 1500 people were shot by the security forces, and more than 8000 were arrested, tortured and given lengthy jail sentences. Many are still in prison.
- Under Raisi’s power, tens of protesters, including the Iranian wrestling Champion Navid Afkari, were executed for merely expressing their opposition to the crimes committed by the leaders of the Islamic regime.
- Hundreds of rights activists and their families have been harassed, arrested, tortured, and have been given flogging or lengthy prison sentences as well as being issued death sentences.
- Raisi as a member of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic regime has been instrumental in intentionally shooting down Ukrainian flight PS752 on 8th January 2020 which resulted in the killing of all 176 passengers on board.
For all the above-mentioned crimes, and many more, Ebrahim Raisi must be arrested and investigated for committing crimes against humanity for over 41 years.
On behalf of the political prisoners in Iran, and their families, I would like to urge the governments around the world, European Union, and UN Human Rights Council:
- To not recognise Raisi as a president but to hold him accountable for the systematic torture, imprisonment and execution of thousands of people in Iran.
- To impose a political sanction against Raisis and to politically boycott the Islamic regime in Iran.
- To use your power to arrest Ebrahim Rais, wherever he travels to, and prosecute him for committing 41 years of crimes against humanity.
Sincerely,
Shiva Mahbobi, Spokesperson
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI)
www.cfppi.org , shiva.mahbobi@gmail.com
Resources:
Iran: Ebrahim Raisi must be investigated for crimes against humanity | Amnesty International
Ebrahim Raisi’s path to Iranian president — and likely future supreme leader – The Washington Post
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Navid_Afkari