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HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSUN human rights rapporteur calls for investigation into 1988 massacre, Raisi’s role

UN human rights rapporteur calls for investigation into 1988 massacre, Raisi’s role

Reporting by PMOI/MEK

June 28, 2021—Javaid Rehman, the UN Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran has called for an independent inquiry into the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran and the role played by the regime’s incoming president Ebrahim Raisi in this crime against humanity.

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Rehman said that his office has “gathered testimonies and evidence” on the 1988 massacre and is “ready to share them if the United Nations Human Rights Council or other body sets up an impartial investigation.”

Rehman also raised concern over reports that the regime is destroying mass graves where it has secretly buried the victims of the mass executions.

“I think it is time and it’s very important now that Mr. Raisi is the president (-elect) that we start investigating what happened in 1988 and the role of individuals,” Rehman said, adding, “Otherwise we will have very serious concerns about this president and the role, the reported role, he has played historically in those executions.”

Rehman said: “We have made communications to the Islamic Republic of Iran because we have concerns that there is again a policy to actually destroy the graves or there may be some activity to destroy evidence of mass graves.”

“I will campaign for justice to be done,” he added.

As a member of the “death commissions,” Raisi played a key role in the execution of the political prisoners, whom according to information obtained by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) number above 30,000. The death commissions summoned the prisoners and sentenced them to death in minutes-long trial after asking them a single question: Do you still support the MEK. Those who did not repent their support for the Iranian opposition were immediately sent to the gallows.

Among Iranians Raisi has become known as the “henchman of 1988.”

As the head of the judiciary since 2019, Raisi has also overseen the torture and killing of thousands of protesters arrested during the November 2019 nationwide uprising.

Raisi is under U.S. sanctions because of his human rights violations.

Rehman is the latest of a series of human rights experts, jurists, and politicians who have raised concern over the presidency of Raisi and have called for an international probe into his crime.

In a statement on the morrow of the election, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, “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.”

Callamard reiterated that Raisi played a key role in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners and, as the head of judiciary before his presidency, he has “presided over a spiralling crackdown on human rights.”

Callamard called for Raisi “to be investigated for his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law.”

Bärbel Kofler, the human rights commissioner in the German government, tweeted, “It is concerning that the elected president has until now not clarified his own past or distanced himself clearly from human rights abuses. Human rights are non-negotiable, and Iran has committed itself internationally to adhering to them.”

 

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