Thousands of MEK supporters and members of the Iranian diaspora will gather in Brussels on June 15th to voice their support for the Iranian Resistance and their solidarity with the people of Iran who seek to establish freedom and democracy in Iran. Attendees at the rally will also express their opposition to the Iranian regime’s repression of its citizens, its nuclear and missile program, and its warmongering and exportation of terrorism. Finally, the Iranian communities will urge the international community to recognize the right of the Iranian people to freedom and democracy and to recognize the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as the viable democratic alternative to the religious dictatorship currently in power.

 

A number of prominent European dignitaries, including former ministers of foreign affairs, parliamentarians, and human rights activists, will participate in the gathering. The demonstrators and speakers are calling for an end of Europe’s policy of appeasement toward the mullahs.

The Voice of #FreeIran, #IStandWithMaryamRajavi
Social media has been a good litmus test to assess public opinion. It has provided repressed populations with a platform to voice their outrage and push back against tyrannical regimes across the globe.https://t.co/XtaAknncEy pic.twitter.com/VgI7jrXbnC

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 2, 2019

The Brussels rally will be the first in a series of major demonstrations in the United States and Europe. The Iranian Communities holds their Free Iran gathering every summer, which is attended by over 100,000 Iranian Opposition supporters, as well as dozens of high-ranking dignitaries and politicians from all over the world. This summer, the Iranian communities will hold several Free Iran rallies over the course of a few weeks in cities including Washington D.C., Berlin, Stockholm, and London.

Economic, Political, and Social Instability

The Free Iran gatherings are taking place during a period of increasing crisis and unrest in Iran. The ever-worsening economy and growing isolation from the international community have left the Iranian regime struggling to hold onto power.

 

The United States ended its long-standing policy of appeasement last year with a series of tough policy changes. The resumption of U.S. oil sanctions weakened Iranian regime’s already crumbling economy, and the sanctions have since tightened. Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, cutting off funding to the regime’s proxies, such as Hezbollah and reducing the mullahs’ malign influence in the Middle East.

 

The firm stance taken by the U.S. has already yielded results. One of the goals of the Free Iran gatherings is to urge European countries to adopt similar policies toward the Iranian regime. The demonstrators will ask that Europe blacklist both the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) for their roles in terrorist activities abroad.

 

The regime has so far been unable to suppress the continuing anti-regime protests and strikes that have swept across the country in response to the increasing economic and political instability facing the country, so it has embarked on a brutal crackdown of its citizens.

 

In March, regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raisi as Judiciary Chief. In 1988, Raisi sat on Tehran’s Death Committee, where he was personally responsible for sending thousands of MEK members to their executions in the 1988 Massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. Death Committee members were then appointed to other key roles in the regime, including prosecutor of Tehran. Khamenei also changed the leadership of the IRGC, choosing some of the cruelest commanders for the top positions in the terrorist organization.

 

The regime has paired these appointments with a massive increase in arrests and a crackdown on individual freedoms. Despite these suppressive actions, the people of Iran continue to take to the streets to demand the end of the regime’s corruption and mismanagement of the country’s wealth and resources. The mullahs’ crackdowns have only succeeded in making the Iranian people more determined to protest.

The Democratic Alternative

 

The NCRI is the largest Iranian Opposition group, and it is the only viable democratic alternative to the theocratic regime. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, has a Ten-Point Plan for Iran’s democratic future that would allow for a peaceful transition to democracy after the fall of the religious dictatorship.

Dates and Locations

Brussels

• Date: Saturday, June 15, 2019
• Time: 15:00 h
• Location: Schumann Square, opposite the Headquarters of the European Union

Washington D.C.

• June 21, 2019,

Berlin

• July 6, 2019,

London

• July 27, 2019

Join to the rally in solidarity of the the Iranian resistance and people's uprising for a #FreeIran on Saturday June 15th.#IStandWithMaryamRajavi #IranProtests @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/AZGw3yWuyk

— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 3, 2019

Social Media

MEK supporters and members of the Iranian diaspora are using #FreeIran and #IStandWithMaryamRajavi to raise awareness of the upcoming rallies and to show their support for the Iranian people and their struggle for freedom.

Staff writer

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 27th, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) released a statement regarding the selection of former Death Committee member Abdolreza Mesri as Deputy Speaker of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament). Masri officially assumed the duties of Deputy Speaker on Sunday.

Mesri’s Role in the Executions of Political Prisoners

Mesri served as the head interrogator and torturer in Kermanshah Province from 1981 to 1986 under the leadership of Mullah Ali Fallahian, who was known for his persecution of political prisoners.

In the summer of 1988, then-Supreme Leader and founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the executions of all imprisoned MEK members in Iran. In order to swiftly condemn and execute the tens of thousands of political prisoners in Iranian prisons, Khomeini set up three-member Death Committees in provinces across the country to convict prisoners in “trials” lasting only a few minutes. Once condemned, the prisoners, who included elderly people, teenagers as young as 15, and pregnant women, were executed in groups. Each Death Committee consisted of a prosecutor, a Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) interrogator, and a judge. Mesri was a prosecutor on Kermanshah’s Death Committee.

#Iran: Abdolreza Mesri, Member Of "Death Committee" of Kermanshah, Becomes Deputy Speaker of Religious Fascism Parliament
The leaders of the mullahs regime are a bunch of revolutionary guards, torturers and thieveshttps://t.co/cJdahEBg7c pic.twitter.com/NT22qBpy9g

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 28, 2019

30,000 people, most of whom were MEK members, were executed over the course of a single summer in the 1988 Massacre. To date, none of the perpetrators of this crime against humanity have been accountable for their actions.

Thorough new @Amnesty report on the mass murder of Iranian detainees between July & Sept 1988. The victims thought they were in court for a pardon, realising they were to be hanged only minutes before death. They are buried in unmarked mass graves. https://t.co/XtT14kNa1v

— Louisa Loveluck (@leloveluck) December 5, 2018

Mesri has since served as Deputy Prosecutor of Kurdistan Province and as a prosecutor in Kermanshah Province. He played an active role in the torture and execution of political prisoners in both positions.

Scandals involving Mesri

According to the NCRI statement, Mesri was appointed to the position of Minister of Welfare and Social Security in 2006 and as the Ambassador of the Mullahs in Venezuela in 2009. Mesri has faced a series of scandals since his appointment as Minister of Welfare and Social Security. Although corruption is generally ignored among top regime officials, infighting among regime factions led to a number of public revelations of corruption and embezzlement within the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security. Mesri was also exposed for having falsified his educational credentials.

It is common for regime officials with records of gross human rights violations to go on to attain high-ranking positions with the regime. In fact, Mesri is the second Death Committee member in only a few months to receive such a promotion. In March, regime Supreme Leader appointed Ebrahim Raisi as the new Judiciary Chief. Raisi sat on Tehran’s Death Committee, where he personally sent thousands of MEK members to their deaths. Since his appointment, human rights violations have skyrocketed.

The families of 30,000 political prisoners who perished in Iran's #1988Massacre urge @JavaidRehman to speak out against Ebrahim Raisi's appointment as Judiciary Chief. He must be prosecuted for his role in the the Death Commission. The impunity must end. @UNHumanRights @mbachelet pic.twitter.com/v4U12qGHyq

— JVMI (@jvmifoundation) March 4, 2019

Raisi and Mesri are only the latest perpetrators of the 1988 Massacre to ascend to the highest levels of the regime. For the thousands of survivors and family members of the victims of the massacre who are still waiting for justice for their loved ones, this comes as a slap in the face. These men should not walk free, much less hold power.

Staff writer

 

 

On Sunday, May 19th, the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced four political prisoners associated with the MEK to prison sentences for their anti-regime activism. One of the four men was also given a death sentence.

Abdullah Ghassempour was sentenced to death after the completion of an eight-year prison sentence for charges of “aggression,” “assembly and collusion against the regime,” and “membership, propaganda, and cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization [MEK].”

#Iran:Criminal Sentences of Execution+Prison for #MEK Supporters
Notorious henchman Moghiseh,sentenced a pol.prisoner 2death,on bogus charges of"aggression","assembly&collusion against IRI","membership,propaganda&cooperation w/#MEK#FreePoliticalPrisonershttps://t.co/zpVutAcsSP

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 23, 2019

Mohammad Hossein Ghassempour (Abdullah’s brother), Alireza Habibian, and Akbar Dali were each sentenced to five-and-a-half year prison terms for “assembly and collusion against the regime.” All four men were arrested on May 21, 2018, and transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where they waited almost a full year before standing trial.

Mohammad Moghiseh’s Past

Tehran’s Revolutionary Court is headed by notorious regime henchman Mohammad Moghiseh, whose record of gross human rights violations against political prisoners extends back into the 1980s. During the 1988 Massacre, in which 30,000 political prisoners were executed in a single summer, Moghiseh sent scores of prisoners in Gohardasht, most of whom were MEK supporters, to their deaths. The 2001 book

Crime Against Humanity and the 2006 book

Fallen for Freedom: A List of 20,000 PMOI Martyrs both include Moghiseh among the list of perpetrators of the massacre who must be tried for crimes against humanity.

Crackdown on MEK Activists

Sunday’s sentencing comes in the midst of a harsh crackdown by the regime against MEK activists. Frustrated by the growth of Resistance Units and Resistance Councils, unable to suppress the rising tide of social unrest engulfing the country, and eager to deflect attention away from the rapidly escalating economic and diplomatic chaos that threatens to destroy the faltering regime, the mullahs have targeted the MEK with widespread arrests, long prison sentences, and executions.

#MEK Releases List of Political Prisoners in Regime Custody and Calls on #UN to Investigate https://t.co/7x3GbafhFw #Humanrights #BlackListMOIS @USAdarFarsi @UNHumanRights @JavaidRehman @mbachelet

— MEKIran (@MEK_Iran) April 24, 2019

On April 19th, regime Minister of Intelligence Mahmoud Alavi announced that 116 teams associated with the MEK had been “dealt with” over the past year. The following week, on April 24th, the Director General of the Intelligence Ministry in East Azerbaijan Province reported that 60 MEK members in the province had been arrested and another 50 had been “briefed” in the past year.

On April 23rd, the MEK released a list of 31 MEK members who had been arrested over the previous year. On May 17th, the MEK released 11 more names of people who were arrested between late April and mid-May.

A Call from the Iranian Resistance

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a statement calling on the Secretary-General, the High Commissioner, and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, as well as international human rights groups to take immediate and urgent action to prevent the execution and secure the human rights of Abdullah Ghassempour and other political prisoners facing death, torture, and long-term imprisonment at the hands of the Iranian regime. It further calls for the appointment of delegations to visit Iranian prisons and meet with political prisoners there.

Staff writer

Last week, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the regime’s  Secretary-General of the Combatant Clergy Association denied the suffering of the Iranian people, saying,” Today, our people are better off than Europe in terms of welfare.”

“Iran’s poverty is not out of hunger. It is rather a deficiency of welfare and desirable employment because expectations are based on new demands,” Pourmohammadi added.

The shocking statement came during a May 15th meeting with clerical leaders and was intended to counter growing unrest in the country over skyrocketing inflation and widespread poverty. Pourmohammadi’s claims were based on the false premise that Iranians feel poor not because they have been deprived of basic necessities, but because they have unreasonable expectations.

Pourmohammadi, who served as the regime Minister of Interior from 2005 to 2008 and also headed the General Inspectorate Office, is either willfully ignorant of the regime’s own statistics on Iran’s current economic state or he is choosing to ignore them. According to figures from regime officials, 80% of the Iranian population live below the poverty line.

The economic crisis in Iran has caused massive unrest across the country, and the regime has done nothing to address it. Labor activists say that the minimum wage in Iran is half of the line of poverty. For example, in Tehran, the poverty line for a family of four is four million Tomans (currently about 260 USD). The minimum wage is 1.8 million Tomans (about 170 USD), less than half of the poverty line.

A woman, with 2 small children, searching the trash for food scraps
The #Iranian Parliament’s Research Center published a report in which figures for the next 12 months show that between 23 & 40 percent of #Iran ’s population will soon be living under the absolute poverty line. pic.twitter.com/OAhPjXQcXC

— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) May 19, 2019

Compounding the issue is the fact that many workers do not receive their paychecks for months at a time. Factory workers, teachers, railway workers, construction workers, healthcare workers, and municipal workers have all protested for payment of their overdue wages over the past year. The regime has responded to these strikes and protests with violent suppression, conducting midnight raids of workers’ homes and arresting peaceful protesters.

Faced with no other options, some Iranians have been forced to sell their organs to make ends meet. Others have been driven to suicide. If Pourmohammadi’s definition of “new demands” are the expectations that a job will pay its employees for their work and that the wages from that job will cover basic needs, then he is correct that the Iranian people have expectations that are not being met.

Who is Mostafa Pourmohammadi?

Pourmohammadi’s remarks are best understood in the context of his past actions. In 2013, the cleric was appointed to the position of Minister of Justice. Pourmohammadi said that he hoped “to promote justice” at the Ministry.

Pourmohammadi’s appointment to Minister of Justice was a slap in the face to the family members of thousands of political prisoners who were executed on his orders.

In the summer of 1988, Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder and Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, issued a fatwa ordering the executions of all imprisoned MEK members. He formed three-person “death committees” to carry out trials that lasted only minutes. Each committee consisted of an Islamic judge, a Ministry of Intelligence Representative, and a state prosecutor.

Pourmohammadi was the Ministry of Intelligence Representative on Tehran’s death committee. Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri stated that Pourmohammadi was “the representative of the Ministry of Intelligence in charge of questioning prisoners in Evin Prison.”

Montazeri, who later expressed remorse for his role in the massacre, said that Pourmohammadi was a “central figure” in the mass executions of 1988.

Pourmohammadi has expressed no such remorse. In 2016, he said that he was “proud to have carried out God’s commandment concerning the People’s Mojahedin of Iran.”

“I am at peace and have not lost any sleep all these years because I acted in accordance with law and Islam,” he added.

30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were MEK members, were executed during a single summer in 1988. None of the perpetrators have ever faced justice for their roles in the massacre.

Staff writer

In a new article on the British website Express.co.uk, Shahin Gobadi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Foreign Affairs Committee argued that newly-appointed regime Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi should face international condemnation for his role in the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners during the 1988 Massacre in Iran.

In the Thursday interview with the British website, Gobadi laid out the case against Raisi. He said: “Ebrahim Raisi, [was] a member of the Death Committee in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority of whom were activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in 1988. Raisi is also a devoted supporter of the regime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, Gobadi emphasized.

“Raisi should be subject to international prosecution for committing crimes against humanity in the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and tried for the genocide of MEK members.

“His appointment as the highest judicial authority of the clerical regime signals a hard turn to even more repression by the clerical regime against the Iranian people and resistance.

By appointing #Raisi,a"Death Committee member"of #1988massacre,as head of Judiciary,various rifts w/in the regime appear 2have chosen to show an outward display of solidarity in the face of domestic &international crises.https://t.co/KEjBs2KNVC #HumanRights #StandUp4HumanRights

— MEKIran (@MEK_Iran) March 7, 2019

“In addition to committing a major crime in the 1988 massacre, Raisi is a low ranking cleric without adequate religious credentials.

“He is under the control of Khamenei and has been serving in the regime’s repressive agencies since the age of twenty.

“Raisi’s appointment by Khamenei proves once again that as the head of the crisis-stricken theocratic regime, he finds no other solution than a hard turn towards further repression in order to contain the growing crisis that the regime faces.

“Khamenei thus wants to barricade his clerical regime against the uprising of the Iranian people and their organized resistance for justice and freedom in Iran.”

The 1988 Massacre

During the summer of 1988, in the final months of the Iran-Iraq War, then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the executions of all MEK members currently imprisoned in Iran. Over the course of a single summer, political prisoners were marched in front of “Death Committees” and sentenced to death in trials that lasted only minutes. Prisoners were asked if they renounced their allegiance to the MEK. Anyone who said no was sent immediately to the gallows, where people were executed in groups. 30,000 people were executed in the summer of 1988.

 

To date, none of the perpetrators responsible for the massacre have been held accountable. The regime has blocked all attempts to investigate the executions and has gone as far as to destroy mass graves of victims to cover up evidence of their crimes.

Ebrahim Raisi’s Role in the Massacre

Ebrahim Raisi sat at the head of Tehran’s Death Committee and personally sent thousands to their deaths. An audiotape surfaced in 2016 that provided insight into the brutality of the crime against humanity in which Raisi participated. In the recording, then Deputy Supreme Leader Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri can be heard expressing remorse over the mass executions. He is heard saying that “pregnant women and 15-year-old girls” were among those executed and that the mass executions were the “biggest crimes committed by the Islamic Republic.”

Raisi is the second former Death Committee member to later be appointed to the position of Judiciary Chief in Rouhani’s “moderate” regime. Meanwhile, family members of victims of the massacre are prevented from publicly honoring their relatives, and their graves continue to be destroyed by a regime that mocks their loss by installing mass murderers in the Ministry of Justice.

Raisi was also recently named to the mullahs’ Assembly of Experts. He is widely considered to be a favorite to succeed Khamenei as regime Supreme Leader.

Staff writer

In the last few days, the Iranian authorities carried out the execution of four prisoners. The men were held in custody at Babol, Mashhad, Ardebil and Kermanshah prisons.

The first executions came on April 18. 45-year-old Vali Zandian was hanged at Ardebil prison and Jafar Hosseini was killed at Dizelabad prison in Kermanshah province.

Then, on April 22, the Iranian state-run media reported the execution of a man at the central prison in Mashhad.

#Iran – Four Men Executed in Babol, Mashhad, Ardebil and Kermanshah prisons @IranHRM https://t.co/Lw90Xfyxrg

— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) April 25, 2019

Most recently, on Wednesday, April 24, a prisoner identified only as A.Gh. was executed at Babol Prison in northern Iran. Those executed were charged with various charges.

Anti-Regime Protests

The executions come just a few weeks after the flood-hit victims in various cities started protesting against the regime’s lack of support for the flood-hit areas.

In October, supporters of MEK gathered on the streets of London and Belgium to protest the regime’s widespread use of the death penalty.

Protestors took their chants to 10 Downing Street in London, the residence of Prime Minister Theresa May. In Belgium, protestors gathered outside the European Union (EU) headquarters.

Half of the World’s Executions

International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, often draw attention to the regime’s violent and brutal application of capital punishment. The clerical regime in Iran is responsible for more than half of the executions that take place across the globe each year.

MEK- Iran Responsible for Half of World’s Executions

This is also a conservative estimate. Many executions in Iran go unreported, especially those of members of opposition political groups like the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK).

To date, the Iranian regime has executed more than 120,000 for political reasons. In the summer of 1988 alone, the regime killed an estimated 30,000 political prisoners, mainly members of the MEK.

“There needs to be more pressure to bring a halt to all of these executions,” Naghmeh Rajabi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said. “Children, people, normal people are walking in the streets and they see bodies hanging from cranes… It’s completely unacceptable in the twenty-first century,” she said.

People are being sent to the gallows for non-violent crimes. In 2014, the Iranian regime parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, estimated that 80% of all executions were carried out against prisoners convicted of drug offenses.

Instead of participating in the United Nations, the representative of this regime should be held accountable for the persecution and execution of more than 120,000 people due to their anti-Iranian policies towards the Iranian people.#Ban_Zarif #Zarifisaliar #Iran@USADarFarsi pic.twitter.com/Yh8ZkxSrHT

— maddJavadi (@MaddJavadi) April 23, 2019

Through its use of the death penalty, the regime has established a climate of fear and repression. Its monopoly on violence is designed to ensure the public do not rise up and bring a democratic Iran to fruition. This is how the regime has remained in power to date, but their grip is weakening. The brave Iranian youth are increasingly risking their lives and freedom to make their voices heard. They will not be silenced any longer.

Staff writer

In dictatorial regimes, people reach senior positions based on their lack of respect for justice or having special connections with those in power. For positions of power in repressive organs, these appointments are carefully considered and people who are appointed must be competent at wielding suppressive weapons, the survival of the regime depends on it.

 

We can take a look at the so-called “moderate” cabinet of President Hassan Rouhani, formed in 2013. In addition to Rouhani himself, there were many overtly oppressive cabinet members like Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, the former regime Minister for Justice, who was a member of the “Death Squads” responsible for thousands of executions in 1988. The selection of Pour Mohammadi was a clear signal to the Iranian people that Rouhani’s administration is anything but moderate and that they should not expect any leniency in judicial matters of political dissent.

 

Rouhani’s moderate political slogans masked the hideous face of the clerical regime. Essentially in the culture of the clerical regime, the publicly announced policies bear no resemblance to the political reality of the regime. Repression and limiting civil liberties drive every policy decision. This is most apparent in the regime’s relationship with the main political opposition group, the PMOI. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran is the largest and most organized political force that has opposed this regime throughout its forty-years existence.

 

It is worth pointing out that in the Iranian political landscape, no force is more ideologically opposed to the clerical regime than the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK). The regime’s ideology is rooted in Khomeini’s interpretation of Islam. But the MEK’s view of Islam is radically different from that of the Khomeini’s regime. For the MEK’s, Islam is democratic and secular. Freedom and respect for human rights are at the core of the MEK’s beliefs, conversely, for the regime freedom has no place in society and is vehemently opposed. It is this fundamental ideological difference that has put the MEK in the regime’s crosshairs. This is apparent in the appointment of Raeisi. In these sensitive times, as public dissent increases and the MEK grows more popular, Rouhani is turning to ‘the hanging cleric’ to crack down on the pro-democracy group.

 

“By emphasizing the need for a change in the judiciary and the beginning of a powerful new era,” Khamenei indicated his priority remains self-preservation at the expense of Iranian human rights. Khamenei declared the year 2019 as the year of uprising and social explosion, appointing an executioner such as Raisi is a direct response to the economic and political demands of the people.

Why #Raissi at the head of the judiciary?

It still remains a legitimate question: Why did Khamenei need such a hated character at the head of his judiciary?#1988Massacre #HRC40 #MEK#StandUp4HumanRights#HumanRights @USUN@eu_eeas @SwedenUNhttps://t.co/nXNJqxMJe2 pic.twitter.com/95QLa8n8uh

— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) March 15, 2019

The fact that “reformers” and “moderates” within the regime welcomed Raisi’s appointment as the head of the regime’s judiciary speaks volumes about the magnitude of the crisis the clerical regime faces. It proves that when it comes to repression, the different factions within the religious dictatorship are united in the shared goal of regime preservation and maintaining their grip on power.

Hassan Rouhani touted Raisi’s ”proper management skills depicted in previous positions in the judiciary” when he announced the appointment. Jahangiri, Rouhani’s vice president, also expressed hope that Raisi, with his experience and management skills, will be able to open new horizons. Two hundred parliamentary representatives wrote in a letter to Khamenei and Raisi: “In order to implement the second-level declaration of the regime, we expect the new head of the judiciary to make a decisive effort to eradicate corruption completely.” Mahmoud Sadeghi, a “reformist” in the regime’s parliament, wrote in a tweet that “many judges are optimistic about the impending changes in the administration of the judiciary.”

Although appointing Raisi as the head of the judiciary shows a more repressive front against political dissent, at the same time, it has opened the regime up to scrutiny from the international community. Governments around the world are abandoning their policies of appeasement. Following Raisi’s appointment, the international community will be even more reluctant to grant concessions to Iran.

The Associated Press announced the appointment of Raisi as follows: “On Thursday, a hard-line cleric, who was once thought to be a possible viable successor to Iran’s absolute ruler, was appointed as head of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This appointment raised the concern of human rights activists for his involvement in the execution of thousands in the 1980s. “

Referring to Amnesty International’s report in 1990, the Associated Press wrote that “Those who described themselves as ‘Mujahedin’ were sent to their deaths, according to reports Raisi, was part of the panel that was involved in the condemnation of prisoners.”

 

The regime has made some feeble gestures in an attempt to quell international fears of further human rights abuses. It released some political prisoners and removed some radical elements of the judiciary. However, these are nothing but deceptive moves and should be viewed as such.

Death Committee Member #Raisi, Sworn in as Deputy Chief of Mullahs’ Assembly of Experts https://t.co/eD6dZsOzMt #1988Massacre #IranRegimeChange

— MEKIran (@MEK_Iran) March 13, 2019

To call Ebrahim Raisi a “righteous cleric”, as the regime has, is a tasteless joke. Regarding Raeisi’s righteousness, please refer to Ayatollah Montazeri’s remarks in addressing the Death Committee. The former Ayatollah turned to Raeisi and said, “you will be regarded as one of the criminals in history.” It is noteworthy to mention that Raeisi is one of the least experienced of all the criminal judges in the system. At the age of twenty, he began his career, as the prosecutor in Karaj, and shortly afterward, for his “abilities,” he served as Hamedan prosecutor at the same time. In 1985 he was recalled to Tehran for his high “capabilities” and in 1988, at the age of 28, he was placed in a senior position in the Death Squad and oversaw the massacre of thousands of MEK political prisoners.

This criminal cleric is so brazen that he speaks about the massacre of the MEK members with pride. In a ceremony on December 7, 2018, at Beheshti University, in response to a question about the 1988 massacres, he said, “the real hero in fighting the hypocrites, (meaning the MEK), is Khomeini himself although everyone who had a role in this fight against the hypocrites and helped save our country must be awarded.”

According to Rouhani, the clerical dictatorship is at war. He called on Khamenei. “as the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolution,” to “take command, leading this war.”

 

If we take this statement by the President of the clerical regime seriously, in a war against the people, and foreign governments, the appointment of Ebrahim Raeisi is part of a coordinated strategy. In this war, Rouhani may be one of their own victims. When you treat your own people as your enemy, it only speeds up the formation and proliferation of the resistance. 

Referring to Amnesty International’s report in 1990, the Associated Press wrote that “Those who described themselves as ‘Mojahedin’ were sent to their deaths, according to reports Raeisi, was part of the panel that was involved in the condemnation of prisoners.”

The regime has made some feeble gestures in an attempt to quell international fears of further human rights abuses. It released some political prisoners and removed some radical elements of the judiciary. However, these are nothing but deceptive moves and should be viewed as such.

To call Ebrahim Raisi a “righteous cleric”, as the regime has, is a tasteless joke. Regarding Raisi’s righteousness, please refer to Ayatollah Montazeri’s remarks in addressing the Death Committee. The former Ayatollah turned to Raisi and said, “you will be regarded as one of the criminals in history.” It is noteworthy to mention that Raeisi is one of the least experienced among all the criminal judges in the system. At the age of twenty, he began his career, as the prosecutor in Karaj, and shortly afterward, for his “abilities,” he served as Hamedan prosecutor at the same time. In 1985 he was recalled to Tehran for his high “capabilities” and in 1988, at the age of 28, he was placed in a senior position in the “Death Committee” and oversaw the massacre of thousands of MEK political prisoners.

This criminal cleric is so brazen that he speaks about the massacre of the MEK members with pride. In a ceremony on December 7, 2018, at Beheshti University, in response to a question about the 1988 massacres, he said, “the real hero in fighting the hypocrites, (the derogatory name regime uses for the MEK), is Khomeini himself although everyone who had a role in this fight against the hypocrites and helped save our country must be awarded.”

According to Rouhani, the clerical dictatorship is at war. He called on Khamenei. “as the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolution,” to “take command, leading this war.”

If we take this statement by the President of the clerical regime seriously, in a war against the people, and foreign governments, the appointment of Ebrahim Raeisi is part of a coordinated strategy. In this war, Rouhani may be one of its own victims. When you treat your own people as your enemy, it only speeds up the formation and proliferation of the resistance.

Staff writer

 

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, the former vice-President of the European Parliament and a prominent Spanish professor of atomic and nuclear physics, penned an op-ed for Fair Observer criticizing the EU’s approach to the Iranian regime.

New article in @myfairobserver by @isjcommittee President @VidalQuadras
"Meet the “Moderates” the EU Is Trying to Empower in #Iran"#1988Massacre #mek #HumanRights #raisi #Maryam_Akbari_Monfared #FreeIran2019 #IranRegimeChange #IranProtests https://t.co/iQMq2y0mad

— ISJ Committee (@isjcommittee) March 18, 2019

The professor cited the regime’s latest appointment of Ebrahim Raisi as head of the Iranian judiciary as yet further evidence that the regime remains committed to stifling political dissent at home and abroad. A recent Amnesty International report into the 1988 massacre, in which the Iranian regime killed more than 30,000 political prisoners, mainly supporters of the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK), asserts that Raisi was directly involved in the roundup and execution of the political prisoners. He was part of a “death committee” in Iran that sent tens of thousands of Iranians to the gallows.

The case, which Vidal-Quadras denounces as a “crime against humanity”, went too far even for several regime insiders. In 2016, a recording of the successor to the Supreme Leader in 1988 was released in which Hossein Ali Montazeri can be heard denouncing the executions as “the biggest crime in the Islamic Republic.”

He told the regime leadership that “history will condemn us,” and added, “they’ll write your names as criminals in history.”

A Source of Pride

For Vidal-Quadras, the evil deeds of 1988 have been compounded by the reluctance to bring those accountable to justice in the subsequent years. “This crime against humanity is not only an insufficient cause for investigation and punishment of the perpetrators but a source of pride for its instigators,” he lamented.

Raisi has previously boasted of his role in the massacre. In 2015, he spoke of his atrocities against the MEK with glee. Vidal-Quadras asks, “weren’t the European Union’s efforts to appease Iran and all these years of dialogue and concessions supposed to empower moderate figures and isolate the hardliners?”

For Vidal-Quadras, the EU has been duped. It has fallen into Tehran’s trap of believing that there are two warring factions; one made up of religious hardliners and one of more placid moderates. As Europe rushed to appease the Iranian “moderates”, the regime received financial aid it could use to repress its people and carry out human rights abuses.

The appointment of Raisi, a “mass murderer”, to the head of the judiciary shows that there is no such division. There are only hardliners. Vidal-Quadras calls on the European Union and its foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, to add Raisi and other senior figures of the regime leadership to the EU’s sanctions list. “Europe must work forcefully for the right of Iran’s people to live in freedom and democracy,” he said.

Vidal-Quadras concluded, “the EU was founded on the principle of human rights. It is high time for the EU to understand its failure and to rethink the way we deal with this inhumane theocracy.”

Staff writer

On Tuesday, notorious Death Committee member Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the Deputy Chief of the Assembly of Experts. Raisi was elected to the position by the mullahs’ Assembly of Experts a week after being appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the head of the regime’s judiciary.

During the swearing-in ceremony, Raisi vowed to crack down on political dissent.

“We deem security as the most important issue in the country,” he said in remarks broadcast by the Tasnim News Agency.

“We will not tolerate any kind of disturbance in the security of the country and will not concede,” he added.

Crackdown on Dissent

Raisi’s comments point to a disturbing increase in the regime’s suppression of dissent among its people in the wake of the nationwide anti-government protests that began in late 2017. More than 7,000 people were arrested in January 2018 for their participation in the widespread uprisings in Iran, and a number of people died after being tortured while in custody.

Since then, anti-regime protests and strikes have continued in cities across the country on a daily basis, with demonstrators calling for the overthrow of the theocratic regime. The MEK and its Resistance Units have organized and led the growing Iranian Resistance Movement in its fight for a free and democratic Iran.

Raisi was a member of Khomeini’s ‘Death Committee’ in #Iran, that sent tens of thousands of #politicalprisoners to the gallows for refusing to denounce their political affiliation.@zeyneprkaratas @AmyEAdams77 @FatjonaMejdini#IranRegimeChange #HumanRightshttps://t.co/E9qd9eEGP5

— Iran Freedom-En (@4freedominiran2) March 7, 2019

The regime, unable to suppress the protesters, who chant, “Death to Khamenei!” and “Death to Rouhani!” in the streets, have cracked down on all forms of dissent. Last year, the regime’s judiciary threatened striking truck drivers with execution. Security forces conducted a series of midnight raids on the homes of striking factory workers, forcing many terrified workers to sleep on the streets to avoid being beaten and arrested. Several protesters were shot in the street during protests last summer in Kazerun. Numerous activists have been imprisoned for speaking out against the regime.

The Iranian regime has expended a great deal of time and resources attempting to eliminate its primary opposition, the MEK, through terrorist activities and demonization campaigns. Last year, the regime hatched terrorist plots against the MEK in Albania, The Netherlands, France, and the United States. One of the regime’s diplomats is currently standing trial in Belgium for a foiled terrorist attack on the annual Free Iran gathering outside of Paris. Several regime diplomats and Ministry of Intelligence agents have been expelled from European countries for participating in terrorist plots against the MEK in 2018.

And yet still the protests continue. The cries for freedom have not ceased.

Now the Iranian regime has placed Ebrahim Raisi, a man who sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death in a single summer, at the head of the judiciary. The mullahs have further given Raisi, who is closely linked to the Revolutionary Guards, a role in choosing the regime’s next Supreme Leader.

1988 Massacre

In the summer of 1988, during the final days of the Iran-Iraq War, Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against the MEK and its members. He decreed that “as the treacherous Monafeqin [MEK] do not believe in Islam and what they say is out of deception and hypocrisy… it is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin [MEK], are waging war on God and are condemned to execution.”

Ebrahim Raisi was a Prosecutor in Tehran in 1988 and was appointed to a Death Committee by Khomeini. He was tasked with conducting trials in a kangaroo court. MEK members were brought in and asked if they renounced their allegiance to the MEK. If they said no, Raisi sentenced them to death and they were marched to the gallows and hanged in groups. Trials lasted less than three minutes.

More than 30,000 people were executed during the summer of 1988, including pregnant women and teenagers. To this day, none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

Raisi’s appointment to the Ministry of Justice is an intolerable act, not only to the victims of the 1988 Massacre and their families but also to all of those in Iran who still hope to see justice and fairness in their government.

Many insiders have speculated that Raisi could be chosen as Khamenei’s successor for Supreme Leader. The Iranian Resistance fights every day to ensure that the regime will not last to see that day.

Staff Writer

Ken Blackwell, the former US ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, wrote an op-ed for conservative news site Townhall. The human rights expert weighed in on the Iranian regime’s appointment of Ebrahim Raisi as the head of the Iranian judiciary. He called Raisi,

“one of the most brutal figures of modern history of Iranian jurisprudence.”

https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1104970245515759616

Raisi was involved in the systematic execution of more than 30,000 members of the Iranian opposition in 1988. His ascent to the head of the judiciary illustrates the regime’s intent to further attack, maim, and kill members of the Iranian resistance and the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK). The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the umbrella coalition which includes the MEK, denounced the appointment in a statement that read; Ali Khamenei “proves once again that as the head of the crisis-stricken theocratic regime, he finds no solution other than a hard turn towards further repression.”

A Regime in Crisis

Putting their statement into context, Blackwell outlined the precarious position the regime currently finds itself in. “The crisis in question is twofold,” Blackwell writes. Widespread civil unrest and anger over the regime’s economic mismanagement and corruption weigh heavily on the mullahs. This domestic unrest coupled with the regime’s increased isolation on the international stage is causing an existential crisis. The regime’s solution to this crisis appears to be the promotion of a known human rights abuser in Raisi and an impending crackdown on the MEK and the opposition.

“In this sense, the appointment of Raisi as the new judiciary chief is just the latest in a series of efforts to reassert a national identity that is under threat of overthrow at the hands of a resentful and overwhelmingly pro-democratic opposition,” Blackwell rights.

What does appointing #Raisi as head of #Iran regime's Judiciary mean? Read, a "Death Committee Member Appointed as Regime Judiciary Chief" https://t.co/KEjBs2KNVC #1988Massacre #StandUp4HumanRights #MEK

— MEKIran (@MEK_Iran) March 7, 2019

Beyond the human rights abuses, Blackwell argues that Raisi’s appointment also exposes the folly in international policy towards the Iranian regime. Since his rise to power in 2013, many international governments have championed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a moderating influence on the clerical regime.

His indifference in the face of Raisi’s appointment serves to demonstrate the inaccuracy of this belief. Rouhani has expanded repressive gender separation policies, increased state-sponsored terror attacks abroad, and deployment of military personnel to quash public dissent in Iran. These are not the acts of a “moderate”.

Repression Will Not Prevail

Blackwell concluded his piece on a note of optimism. “Ultimately,” he writes, repression is “no solution”. “The Iranian people have continued to demonstrate in favor of dramatic reform and outright regime change even in the wake of thousands of protestors being arrested and dozens killed,” he said.

This commitment and resilience to democracy will ensure the MEK and the Iranian resistance will prevail. “They’re determined to succeed in overthrowing this evil and illegitimate regime,” Blackwell writes, adding, “they deserve moral and political support from the democratic nations of the world.”

Staff Writer