Amnesty International called for Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, to be investigated for the murder and torture of thousands of dissidents

Humanitarian NGO Amnesty International has called for an investigation into crimes against humanity against the elected president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, accused of participating in the murder, enforced disappearance and torture of political dissidents during his role in the so-called “death commission” during the late 1980s.

Specifically, Amnesty denounces that Raisi participated in a program of extrajudicial executions against thousands of political opponents in the prisons of Evin and Gohardasht, near Tehran, in 1988, when the future president and head of the Iranian justice was in office deputy prosecutor of the Iranian capital.

As head of Iranian justice, Raisi has chaired, according to Amnesty, “a growing crackdown on human rights that has led to the arbitrary detention of hundreds of dissidents peacemakers, human rights defenders and members of persecuted minority groups ”.

Likewise, and under its control, the judiciary it also granted “general impunity” to those responsible for the execution of hundreds of men, women and children. and subjecting thousands of protesters to mass arrests and at least hundreds to enforced disappearances, torture and other evils during and after the national protests of November 2019, the organization accuses.

In fact, Raisi is on the blacklist of Iranian officials sanctioned by Washington for “complicity in serious human rights violations.”

“The fact that Ebrahim Raisi took the presidency instead of being investigated for crimes against humanity such as murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran, “the organization said in a statement.

The Secretary General of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, regrets in this regard that “the fact that Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the Presidency instead of being investigated for crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture is a sad reminder that impunity reigns. in Iran “.

In addition, Callamard regrets that the arrival of Raisi to the presidency came after “an electoral process developed in a very repressive environment and prohibiting women, members of religious minorities and candidates with opposing views to stand for election”.

This London-based human rights organization has ensured that Raisi has commanded “a spiral of human rights repression” as head of the Iranian judiciary for the past two years. According to Amnesty, this has led to the arrest of “hundreds of peaceful dissidents, human rights defenders and members of persecuted minorities”.

“As part of its mandate, the judiciary has also guaranteed impunity to senior government officials and security forces responsible for the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children,” he said. .

He also accuses him of “mass arrests of thousands of demonstrators and enforced disappearances of hundreds, in addition to torture and ill-treatment” during and after the wave of protests of November 2019.

The ultra-conservative won the Iranian presidential election with 62.2% of the vote, according to partial results published this Saturday which would make him the successor of Hasan Rouhani without needing a second round, as accepted by his own rivals.

Raisi obtained “more than 17,800,000” of votes out of a total of 28.6 million votes counted, Jamal Orf, chairman of the National Election Commission, told a press conference in Tehran. Orf did not give an estimate of the participation rate, but according to unofficial calculations it would have been 53%. The electoral roll has more than 59.3 million Iranians over the age of 18.

According to partial data, General Mohsen Rezai, former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards – the ideological army of the Islamic Republic – is in second place with more than 11.5% of the vote, ahead of the former chairman of the Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemati (8.3%) and Deputy Amirhosein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi (3.4%).

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday celebrated Raisi’s election as a victory for the nation against “enemy propaganda.” “The big winner of yesterday’s elections is the Iranian nation because it has stood up to the propaganda of the enemy mercenary press,” he said.

Raisi, 60, was one of the big favorites in this election due to the lack of real competition after his main opponents were disqualified. The campaign was bland, against a backdrop of general unrest among citizens over the crisis in this country rich in hydrocarbons, but subject to US sanctions.

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