UN Is Urged To Open Investigation Of 1988 Massacre Of Political Prisoners In Iran And President Ebrahim Raisi's Involvement

President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi. (Wikimedia Commons/Fars Media Corporation/Ali Abak)

JAKARTA - A prominent former UN judge and investigator has asked UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet to investigate the 1988 'massacre' of political prisoners in Iran, including the alleged role of Iran's current President, Ebrahim Raisi, at that time.

The open letter released on Thursday, seen by Reuters, was signed by about 460 people, including former International Criminal Court (ICC) president Sang-Hyun Song and former US ambassador to global criminal justice Stephen Rapp.

President Raisi, who took office in August last year, is under US sanctions over a past that includes what the United States and activists say was complicity, as one of the four judges who oversaw the 1988 assassination. His office in Tehran had no comment on Thursday.

Iran has never acknowledged mass executions took place under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary leader who died in 1989.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has put the number executed at around 5,000, saying in a 2018 report that the actual number could be higher.

"The perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity. They include the current President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi and chief justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei," the open letter said, quoted by Reuters on January 28. Ejei replaces Raisi as head of Iran's judiciary.

President Raisi, when asked about activist accusations that he was involved in the killing, said at a June 2021 press conference: "If a judge, a prosecutor has defended the security of the people, he should be commended."

"I am proud to have defended human rights in every position I have held so far," President Raisi continued at the time.

The letter, organized by the UK-based group Justice for Victims of the Massacre 1988 in Iran, was also sent to the UN Human Rights Council, whose 47 member states opened a five-week session on February 28.

Other signatories include the previous UN investigator on torture and the former foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Kosovo, and Poland.

Javaid Rehman, the UN investigator on human rights in Iran who will report to the session, called in an interview with Reuters last June for an independent investigation into allegations of state-ordered executions in 1988, as well as the role played by Raisi as Tehran's deputy prosecutor.