Iran’s Raisi Faces “Crimes Against Humanity” Complaint in Switzerland

A legal complaint has called for Swiss authorities to arrest Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an expected visit this week, and charge him "over his participation in acts of genocide, torture, extrajudicial executions and other crimes against humanity" connected to a purge of dissidents in the late 1980s.

In the complaint, dated December 10, three alleged victims from the crackdown ask the Swiss federal public prosecutor to ensure the arrest and prosecution of Raisi, the AFP news agency reported.

Raisi was expected to participate in this week’s United Nations Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, but the UN said late on December 10 that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would lead the Iranian delegation.

Rights groups have long campaigned for justice over alleged extrajudicial executions of thousands of people across Iranian prisons in 1988.

The petitioners behind the complaint filed in Switzerland said they could personally identify Raisi as figuring on a commission that sent jailed opponents to their deaths during the purge.

The Iranian president was serving as deputy prosecutor-general of Tehran at the time and was among the most eager on his commission to sentence prisoners to death, according to the complaint.

Many of those killed during the crackdown were supporters of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK or PMOI), a group considered a terrorist organization by the Islamic Republic.

According to the complaint, the main petitioner, Reza Shemiriani, was arrested in 1981 and was one of fewer than 150 of the 5,000 prisoners detained in his cell block who survived the 1988 purge.

Raisi had asked him what group he belonged to, and when he said MEK, "his death sentence was assured," the complaint said, adding that Shemiriani still did not know why his life was spared.

Shemiriani remained in prison until 1991, facing daily torture, the complaint said.