Raisi's appearance at the United Nations was the latest example of appeasement, following an EU delegation's presence at his inauguration in Tehran in August.

PARIS, FRANCE, October 7, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi presented a virtual speech before the United Nations General Assembly earlier this month. Iranian expatriates, human rights advocates, and officials around the world were outraged by the decision.

Rallies were held in a dozen cities across North America and Europe to draw attention to Raisi's human rights violations and to protest Western "appeasement" of the regime.

Raisi's appearance at the United Nations was the latest example of appeasement, following a European delegation's presence at his inauguration in Tehran in August.

Each case demonstrated a clear indifference for the main opposition’s concerns, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Less than a month before the inauguration, that alliance convened an international conference on Iranian politics, concentrating on Raisi's role in the 1988 killing of political prisoners.

Kelly Ayotte, a former Senator from New Hampshire, was one of the American speakers at another recent conference, saying in a speech that "Raisi does not deserve the privilege to address the UN General Assembly tomorrow."

Raisi should be held accountable for the deaths of more than 30,000 innocent Iranian political prisoners.” the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), a dissident group, claimed more than 90% of the fatalities.

Following his arrival in Sweden in 2019, officials in Sweden executed an arrest order for former Iranian jail official Hamid Noury. Last month, Nouri faced allegations of war crimes and mass murder stemming from his own role in the massacre in 1988.

Though notable in and of itself, Raisi's involvement was considerably more limited, as he was one of four members of the Tehran death commission who oversaw executions at Evin and Gohardasht Prisons for several months in 1988.

The case against Noury is being prosecuted in Sweden under the principle of "universal jurisdiction," which allows any nation in good standing with international law to prosecute serious violations committed anywhere in the world if it is clear that no action will be taken within the original jurisdiction.

The 1988 murderers have been methodically rewarded by the dictatorship with more powerful and influential positions. The “election” of Raisi as president, engineered by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is possibly the most egregious example.

The case for Raisi's arrest is enhanced, according to University of Brussels Professor Eric David, who spoke at the NCRI's August conference, because the 1988 massacre was a genocide. This, he said, is made possible by the content of the fatwa underlying the massacre, in which the regime’s founder Khomeini outlined a religious motive for the killings and suggested that adherents to a more moderate brand of Islam were inherently subject to capital punishment.

Raisi's attendance at the United Nations General Assembly is undoubtedly indicative of a lack of political will to hold him accountable for his crimes in the past. His statements centered on portraying the theocracy as a victim of foreign hostility. After resoundingly boycotting the regime's faux presidential elections earlier this year, the Iranian people have rejected Raisi.

Iran has experienced extraordinary public upheaval since the end of 2017, including two different but related countrywide revolutions. The second, which took place in November 2019, spanned approximately 200 cities and towns and featured shouts such as "death to the dictator" and explicit calls for regime change.

During the rebellion, over 1,500 peaceful demonstrators were killed in a matter of days, and many arrestees were tortured for months by a court that was then under Raisi's direction.

Iranians have more in common with secular democracies around the world than they do with the Iranian dictatorship.

Raisi should be rejected by the world community at places such as the United Nations General Assembly, and alternatives for prosecuting him for the mass murder of Iranian citizens should be considered.

Shahin Gobadi
NCRI
+33 6 51 65 32 31
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Human Rights record of Ebrahim Raisi, Eyewitness Accounts, Rasoul Tabrizi

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