Waiting until 60-year-old former Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential elections, London-based Amnesty International calls for an immediate U.N. investigation into war crimes, claiming Raisi presided in 1988 over executions of Iranian prisoners, something preposterous if you do the math, since Raisi was only 27-years-of-age. But whatever the reasons Amnesty objects to Raisi as Iran’s new president replacing 72-year-old Hassan Rouhani, they should have published their findings months ago, not call on the U.N. to intervene with a new investigation, bound only to antagonize the Islamic Republic. Raisi was picked by Iran’s 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Khamenei threw his weight behind Raisi, thinking he’s the logical successor to his 32-year rule.
If Amnesty felt Raisi was a war criminal with a history of genocide or extra-judicial assassinations, they should have made their case before Iran finished its vote for president. When Mahmoud Ahmaminejad became Iran’s president Aug. 3, 2005 it prompted Amnesty to call for an investigation for his role in the 1979 hijacking of the U.S. embassy and hostage-taking in Tehran. Amnesty’s good a headlines but has little clout other than U.N.-style commentary about various human rights abuses around the globe. Amnesty has been especially fixated on 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, whose Novichok poisoning nearly killed him in Aug. 2020, before recovering in a Berlin hospital. Amnesty has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Navalny from the Russian penal colony where her currently serves out a two-and-a-half years prison sentence on bogus charges.
Whether Amnesty or any other human rights group likes it or not, Raisi has served as the Chief Justice of Iran, Prosecutor-General of Iran, Member of the Assembly of Experts, etc., the most qualified in Khamenei’s mind to serve as his successor. When Khamenei decides to retire, Raisi is the heir apparent to become Iran’s next Ayatollah or Supreme Leader. According the Amnesty, Raisi presided of executions of Iranian prisoners at the end of the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War. Amnesty thinks Raisi’s involvement in the commission presiding over untold numbers of executions makes him a war criminal. U.N. officials aren’t likely to follow-up with Amnesty’s request because the charges against Raisi are so vague, buried by 33-years of history. Amnesty doesn’t know whether the executions took place under Raisi’s authority or whether they were authorized by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomenei.
Amnesty likes to create headlines but only after the fact or without any real legal consequences. “That Ebrahim Rais has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran,” as Amnesty’s Agnes Callamard. Casting aspersions on Iranian officials doesn’t mean Amnesty or any other human rights group has a case against Raisi in any international tribunal. Amnesty doesn’t pick its battles wisely, fingering Raisi now that he’s Iran’s President-elect. Starting a U.N. investigation is preposterous over a 33-year-old allegations, when Amnesty can’t say with any certainty that whatever executions allegedly took place that they weren’t sanctioned by an Iran court or Ayatollah’s Supreme authority on matters of life-and-death.
Judging by recent Amnesty complaints for the treatment of Navalny and 26-year-old Belarus blogger Roman Protasevich, they like the high profile cases, appearing on the nightly news. Amnesty called Protasevich’s arrest a hijacking because a Belarus fighter jet forced down Protasevich’s commercial flight from Athenst-to-Vilnius to Minsk for force his arrest. When the U.S. executes arrests of drug dealers on commercial flights, Amnesty doesn’t say the U.S. government engages in hijacking. Yet when Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko forces down Ryanair jet to arrest Protasevich it’s an illegal act of hijacking. “The circumstances surrounding the fate of the victims and the whereabouts of their bodies are, to this day, systematically concealed by the Iranian authorities, amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity,” said Amnesty, offering no proof, only sensational accusations. If Amnesty wants to save its credibility, it needs to show more proof.
President Joe Biden found out it’s not easy dealing with the Persian regime. While he’s like a new Iranian nuke deal, he knows the verifying Iran’s coverty nuclear enrichment activities isn’t easy. If Amnesty wants to be helpful, it would press Iran to verify its nuclear enrichment activities, currently occurring under the radar. Biden finds himself caught between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place trying negotiate in new nuke deal with an increasingly hard-line regime. Raisi will rubber-stamp all of the Ayatollah’s wishes, including not giving U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] inspectors access to Iran’s secret nuclear enrichment cites. If Amnesty wanted to be helpful with Iran, they’d apply pressure on Iran to comply with IAEA inspectors to spare the world another dangerous nuclear power. Dredging up old news about Raisi does nothing than create sensational headlines.
