SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Amnesty International on Saturday for investigations into Iranian president-elect Ebrahim Raisi for his role in what the U.S. and rights groups have called the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.
Raisi, a hardline judge under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses, secured a landslide victory on Saturday in Iran’s presidential election.
“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,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
“We continue to call for Ebrahim Raisi to be investigated for his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law, including by states that exercise universal jurisdiction,” she said, pointing to its 2018 documented report on Raisi’s role.
Iran has never acknowledged the mass executions and Raisi has never publicly addressed allegations about his role.
Some clerics have said the trials were fair, praising the “eliminating” of armed opposition in the early years of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Amnesty has called in the past for an investigation into Raisi, who won Friday’s presidential election.
Callamard said the hardline judiciary chief should also be probed over a spiraling crackdown in recent years on human rights.
