Analysis by PMOI/MEK
March 11, 2019 – Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani on Saturday congratulated and praised hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, appointed as the new judiciary chief by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Raisi is notoriously renowned and condemned for his pivotal role in the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners during the summer of 1988. Rouhani spoke of the regime’s critical situation after he expressed his support for this criminal during a ceremony welcoming him to his new post.
“At this critical juncture, a major part of this grave responsibility lies on the shoulder of the judiciary, and my government and I are ready to assist and cooperate with you in any way necessary,” Rouhani said to Raisi.
During factional bickering prior to the 2017 presidential elections, Rouhani shed light on Raisi’s extensive involvement in the plundering of the country’s wealth as the Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi, a multi-billion dollar foundation that only responds to Khamenei. He also revealed Raisi’s past 38-year record of executions and tortures of prisoners. but now, ironically, in a 180-degree turn, he praises and embraces him in a letter writing: “his appointment as the head of the country’s judiciary is a sign of his admirable management in administrating his previous responsibilities.
Read more:
Rouhani said in a speech in Hamadan on May 8, 2017, prior to the elections: "Our people will once again say they don’t want those who have known only execution and torture during past 38 years. I’m asking those who are using the country’s wealth and money to travel to the cities and towns to frustrate and discourage the people, where it should be used for the security of the nation, what are you so afraid of?"
In a statement on March 7, 2019, the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said in par; “In 1988, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s successor at the time, and a higher-ranking cleric than Khamenei and his minions summoned members of the Death Committee including Raisi. Montazeri addressed them in a meeting that was recorded and later published, stating, “The greatest crime committed under the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed by you. Your (names) will in the future be etched in the annals of history as criminals.”
In addition to committing a major crime in the 1988 massacre, Raisi is a low ranking cleric without adequate religious credentials. He is under the control of Khamenei and has been serving in the regime's repressive agencies since the age of twenty. Appointing him as the head of the regime's judiciary will prove unacceptable for many government-affiliated clerics. During the sham presidential elections in May 2017, the regime’s rank-and-file clerics refused to support Raisi despite coercive pressure by Khamenei. Rouhani, who competed against Raisi during the sham elections, said of Raisi that he was one of those who “only knew execution and prisons for 38 years."
