July 11, 2021 —According to the Tehran Times, Ebrahim Raisi, the president-elect of Iran following his sham election, who is due to take up his office in August, may make Scotland his first international destination as president. Raisi has apparently been invited to attend the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, from 31 October to 12 November this year. The talks will bring together heads of state, climate experts and campaigners to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change. 200 world leaders and more than 30,000 delegates are expected to attend.
As we all know, Raisi is on the US sanctions list for serial human rights violations. He is a murderer and perpetrator of genocide, who has openly boasted of his role as a member of the ‘death commission’ which oversaw the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Most of those executed, including many teenagers and even pregnant women, were supporters of the main opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Raisi was until his elevation to the presidency, chief of Iran’s judiciary, where he was able to indulge his expertise as a mass executioner. He has directed the hanging of 251 people in 2019, 267 people in 2020, and scores of executions so far in 2021. According to eye-witness survivors, Raisi often supervised the torture of men and women and then personally attended their execution.
Agnès Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, has called for Raisi to be investigated for crimes against humanity and for his involvement in murder, enforced disappearance and torture. I want to make it clear today that Raisi is not welcome in Scotland. The Scottish people do not like mass murderers. I call on the UK Government, who are hosting the summit, and the Scottish Government, to ban Raisi’s entry to the UK. He is the pariah president of a pariah state and should be treated as such.
The last mass murderer who came to Scotland was Hitler’s Deputy Rudolf Hess. He flew to Scotland in 1941, was immediately arrested and spent the rest of his life in prison. Raisi should take note. He will be held accountable for his crimes. There can be no impunity for mass murder and genocide.
