Top Iranian Officials Targeted in French Criminal Complaint

A criminal complaint was filed with Paris prosecutors on September 14 against an Iranian minister and the top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its elite Quds force for "death threats and justifying terrorism."

The case against Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami and Quds force head Esmail Qaani refers to public threats issued by the three men in December and January against supporters of anti-government protests in Iran, a lawyer for the six Iranian and Franco-Iranian plaintiffs said.

The complaint quoted Khatib as saying on December 13 that "anyone playing a role in the riots will be punished, wherever they are in the world."

Chirinne Ardakani, a French-Iranian lawyer from the Iran Justice Collective, described such threats as “disguised fatwas" -- Islamic legal decrees -- against Iranian opposition activists around the world.

The largely symbolic complaint marks the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, which triggered months of protests across Iran. The Islamic Republic’s crackdown on the women-led protests resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

"It's about showing the Iranian regime, which wants to suffocate opposition, that wherever Iranians are in the world, they will continue to make themselves heard," Ardakani said.