Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 9, 2020—Swiss authorities will soon be closing the unsolved murder case of Dr. Kazem Rajavi, according to a letter given to the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran by the Prosecutor for Vaud Province in Switzerland. The decision, which will come into effect on June 17, 2020, will let off the hook 14 criminals who were being investigated in the case, and set a dangerous precedent for the Iranian regime, which has always considered assassinations as one of the main implements of its foreign policy.
Kazem, the brother of Iranian Resistance leader Massoud Rajavi and the representative of the NCRI in Switzerland, was assassinated by agents of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) on April 24, 1990, near his home in Geneva. A renowned and respected jurist, Rajavi had become known as the voice of human rights in Iran, loved by the people and hated by the mullahs for exposing the regime’s crimes against humanity, especially against political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
The Iranian regime considered his assassination a great blow to the Iranian Resistance.
“Terrorism and crime against humanity perpetrated relentlessly by the religious fascism ruling Iran cannot be subject to the statute of limitations,” the Secretariat of the NCRI declared in a statement following the letter of Swiss authorities.
The NCRI pointed out that in the list of suspects, the Swiss government refrains from naming Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then-Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and then-Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rouhani, who commissioned and ordered the assassination.
Since the murder of Dr. Rajavi, his case has remained unsolved and has been subject to much politicization. In 1993, a political deal facilitated two of the arrested killers in France to escape justice. The efforts to identify, arrest, and try Dr. Rajavi’s murderers have been subpar, to say the least, despite the fact that they were active members of the regime’s diplomatic apparatus and embassies, and were freely commuting around Europe.
“Invoking the statute of limitations regarding the file on the murder of Prof. Kazem Rajavi, a by-product of much delay and postponement amounts to nothing but preventing justice from being served and appeasing the mullahs and their unbridled terrorism,” the NCRI reminded in its statement, and therein lies the most grievous consequence of obstructing justice in Dr. Rajavi’s case.
The Iranian regime has a long history of engaging in political assassinations on foreign soil. Dozens of dissidents have been murdered by regime assassins in the past decades. The regime has also conducted several terrorist attacks against members of the MEK in Iraq. In the past two years, the regime has made several failed terrorist attempts against MEK members in France, Albania, and the United States. Its terrorist activities have led to its ambassador being expulsed from Albania and prompted warnings by European authorities.
By closing Dr. Rajavi’s file, Swiss authorities are effectively telling the Iranian regime that it can continue to wage terror on their soil and can get away with it by stalling investigations for long enough. This will set a dangerous precedent for the world’s worst state-sponsor of terror and will encourage terrorism and compromise the security of European countries.
The Swiss judiciary might have a 30-year memory span, but the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people, who are still grieving the death of Dr. Rajavi, will not forget this heinous crime.
Time will not close Dr. Rajavi’s murder case. Justice will.
