New President of Iran linked to past executions of communists, socialists, and others
Kanako Mita and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The election result in Iran for a new president is a grim reminder that ultra-conservative Shia power concentration is in full swing. This concerns the new president being linked to the mass executions of 1988. These executions exceeded several thousands of people – some site tens of thousands – when the Iranian ultra-conservative clergy sought to crush all dissent. Hence, the electoral success of Ebrahim Raisi is bound to raise questions internationally.
During 1988, untold numbers of communists, socialists, individuals who fused Marxism and the Shia faith, and others representing different ideologies and ethnicities, were killed by the state apparatus. Raisi was one of several important individuals who mocked any notion of a fair and impartial judiciary. Instead, Raisi – and others who supported the Shia Islamic Revolution – ruled by fear and political oppression.
Radio Free Europe / Free Liberty (RFE/FL) comments about the grim past of Raisi and the role he took against anyone deemed a political deviant. RFE/FL reports, “As deputy Tehran prosecutor, Raisi played a role in one of the darkest chapters of the Islamic republic: the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners following a fatwa by the founder of the republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.”
Ayatollah Montazeri sought to stem the brutality of the ultra-conservative Shia elites who enforced their religious inquisition against communists, socialists, and others deemed a threat to the state. Montazeri appealed to the ultra-conservative Shia elites under Ayatollah Khomeini to cease the bloodshed.
Montazeri said, “At least order to spare women who have children … the execution of several thousand prisoners in a few days will not reflect positively and will not be mistake-free … A large number of prisoners have been killed under torture by interrogators … in some prisons of the Islamic Republic young girls are being raped … As a result of unruly torture, many prisoners have become deaf or paralyzed or afflicted with chronic decease.”
The so-called “death committee” in 1988 comprised Raisi, Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, Morteza Eshraqi, and Mostafa Pour Mohammadi. Others acting on the orders of Khomeini in this bloodthirsty period of Iranian history include Alireza Avaei. Therefore, the success of Raisi in becoming the President of Iran in 2021 is a firm reminder of power concentration under the ultra-conservative Shia elites who fear a more open Iran.
Agnès Callamard, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, is dismayed by the presidential election in Iran. She said, “That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran.”
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