PRESS RELEASE – 26 AUGUST 2023
The International Committee ‘In Search of Justice’ (ISJ) has condemned as “ludicrous”, attempts by the Iranian regime to indict more than 100 prominent leaders of the main democratic opposition movement, currently living in exile, and the stupid call of the head of the clerical judiciary system to get members and prominent leaders of that movement extradited. The mullahs’ regime has given an absurd one-month deadline for the leaders of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), to appoint legal representatives and submit themselves for “a fair trial” or face harsh consequences. The notion that the theocratic regime, renowned for its vicious brutality, would provide a ‘fair trial” for any opposition supporter, is worthy of a comedy award.
In 1988, the then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa ordering the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners in prisons all across Iran. It was a crime against humanity and one of the worst acts of malicious butchery since the end of WWII. It is now the subject of an active investigation by the UN. The majority of those executed were members or supporters of the PMOI/MEK. They were mostly young, well-educated, Iranian men and women. Some had been imprisoned for supporting the MEK and had been released after serving their sentences. They were re-arrested in their thousands and subjected to arbitrary 3-minute trials in which they were asked a single question: “Do you still support the MEK?” If they answered “Yes” they were immediately sent for execution.
Batches of six at a time, were hanged in prison gymnasiums. Their bodies were then buried secretly, and their families ordered to remain silent under threat of prosecution. One of the key executioners during the 1988 massacre was Ebrahim Raisi, now the President of Iran, known as ‘The Butcher of Tehran,’ for his role in the killings. This, then, is the “fair trial” on offer to the leaders of the Iranian opposition if they return to Iran. Indeed, in a frenzy of executions aimed at terrifying the rebellious population, the theocratic regime has hanged 56 people in the past month alone. Iran is now the leading per-capita executioner in the world.
With the Iranian economy in freefall as a result of decades of corruption and maladministration, and 70% of the 85 million Iranian population struggling to survive on incomes below the international poverty line, the mullahs are in blind panic. They see support for the PMOI/MEK and its Resistance Units burgeoning across Iran and now seek desperate ways of trying to traduce and demonize the opposition movement and its leaders.
The mullahs are horrified at the surge of international support for the PMOI/MEK and the charismatic President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Mrs Maryam Rajavi. Worldwide, a statement championing the NCRI and the PMOI/MEK and their right and the right of the Iranian people to overthrow their corrupt and brutal regime, has gained the support of more than 3,600 MPs and senators, including a majority in the US Congress, a majority in Italy, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, France, Slovenia, the UK and many more. The statement was also signed this summer by 124 former world leaders, including 52 former Presidents, 54 former Prime Ministers, one former Chancellor, and nine other former Heads of State from across the world.
Two former Presidents of the European Commission and three Nobel Peace Prize laureates were also among those who signed. Mike Pence, former US Vice President added his signature and attended in person the Free Iran Summit in Paris in July, hosted by Mrs Rajavi, as did many hundreds of the eminent signatories. Those who signed the statements have shown their outright support for Mrs Rajavi’s 10-point plan as a blueprint for Iran’s future, built upon the pillars of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, within a secular and democratic republic.
The ISJ calls on the UN and the International Courts of Justice to indict the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the President – Ebrahim Raisi and their cohorts, to hold them accountable for crimes against humanity and human rights abuse and to summon them to face trial in the Hague, where they can be guaranteed a “fair trial”.
