Clock is Ticking for Ebrahim Raisi to Face Justice for Iran’s 1988 Massacre

ebrahim raisi trial court

Written by
Mehdi Oghbai

Two years have passed since Ebrahim Raisi came to power. From the very beginning, it was evident that the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who opted for a consolidated governance to withstand the continuous waves of popular uprisings since 2017, will fail to get back to the old days of indisputable reign. However, after two years, the majority of the regime’s factions have now become vocal in rejecting Raisi’s administration and governance altogether.

Citing the government’s achievements, state officials argue Raisi’s government is known for internet censorship, poverty, morality police, and stalling in foreign policy. They express their wish to receive no official documents from the cabinet members except for their formal resignation.

According to statistics and estimates published by state-affiliated media and former officials, Raisi’s two years as president have been marked by significant inflation (83%), a surge in liquidity (73%), a steep increase in the price of the dollar (95%), a soaring price of gold coins (162%), and an elevated price index (114%). These alarming figures fuel daily cries of protest from various officials, either through the heavily controlled media or the halls of the tightly vetted parliament.

On August 5, Shargh newspaper delivered a noteworthy warning to Raisi, reminding him that a week earlier marked the anniversary of the execution of Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri, a cleric who was hanged by the Iranian people in 1909 for betraying the 1906 Constitutional Revolution movement. Warning the entire ruling establishment in general and Raisi in particular, the author starts his writing by noting that the “event still serves as a relevant lesson after 114 years.”

But the calls for prosecuting Raisi do not only come from within Iran. The world’s public opinion and a wide range of former statesmen and jurists are joining the Iranian people in demanding justice and regime change.

At the Free Iran World Summit 2023, the 48th Vice President of the United States, Mr. Mike Pence, strongly asserted the need to “hold Raisi accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide.”

Mr. Janez Janša, former Prime Minister of Slovenia, highlighted the importance of holding those responsible for human rights violations by the Iranian regime to account, specifically reminding that “Ebrahim Raisi has been accused by Amnesty International of crimes against humanity for his role in [the 1988] massacre [of political prisoners].”

Similarly, former Canadian Foreign Minister Mr. John Baird emphasized that the day of reckoning and accountability will come for the regime’s leaders, stating, “Let’s be very, very clear that these evil monsters will face justice, especially someone named Ebrahim Raisi.”

Other human rights experts, such as Dr. Melani O’Brien, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and Mr. Gilbert Mitterrand, the President of the Danielle Mitterrand Foundation, also called for Raisi’s trial.

 

The call to end the regime’s impunity is causing tremors within the regime, evident in its issuance of arrest warrants for 104 members of the Iranian Resistance. As the regime’s suppressive forces experience a decline in morale, their leaders resort to phony initiatives to maintain a mirage of dominance.

Yet calls for the resignation of ministers and Raisi himself, or expressing concerns about the regime’s potential collapse, are being taken more seriously than the infrequent announcements by state media that the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization’s fate is sealed or its network inside Iran is dismantled.

During the Free Iran World Summit 2023, Mr. Kenneth Lewis, an attorney for the MEK, discussed the significance of a Stockholm court that recently sentenced Hamid Noury, a former prison guard in Iran’s Gohardasht prison, to 20 years in prison for his role in the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners. Mr. Lewis said that the evidence presented at the court is putting Raisi, Khamenei, and other regime officials on trial.

Additionally, the Iranian National Council of Resistance’s office in Washington has published a book outlining “The Case to Hold Ebrahim Raisi to Account for Crimes Against Humanity.” Two years of crime, oppression, destruction, poverty, inflation, and the mass execution of the Iranian people will only be added as an appendix to this long indictment.

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