Thirty-four years later, when he remembers the arrest and then the killing of his brother, Mahmoud, by the Iranian Islamic regime, Ahmad Hassani’s voice still begins to tremble.
“I will never forget the intensity of my mother’s cries in the car when she came out of prison, the first time she was able to visit her, says the 66-year-old on the other end of the line. , who now lives and works in Ottawa. She was inconsolable after recognizing him only by his voice: his face had been rendered unrecognizable by the violence of the tortures he had suffered. »
Arrested at the age of 21 in 1981, Mahmoud, an economics student at the University of Tehran, a liberal and an activist against the Islamist revolution, spent seven years in prison before being executed in 1988 on the orders of the “death commission », a group of four men, including the current Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi. In addition to Mahmoud, thousands of other young Iranians, including hundreds of women, were executed under the direction of the man who was nicknamed at the time the “butcher of Tehran”. “He’s a killer. A mass killer. And he must be judged for his actions, ”he continues.
It is in the name of this justice and for the memory of his brother that Ahmad Hassani decided, a few days ago, to file a complaint in a federal court in New York against the Iranian president, a hyperconservative brought to the head of the country. in August 2021. The gesture, supported by two other direct victims of this repression, tortured under the leadership of the “butcher” and living today in the United States and England, precedes the arrival in the American metropolis of Ebrahim Raïsi, on the occasion of the 77e session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, which opens next Tuesday.
The civil lawsuit, which seeks to obstruct his official visit to the international institution, accuses the Iranian president of “torture”, “extrajudicial executions”, “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”. It posits him as one of the masterminds of the great repression of Iranian dissidents in 1988 and claims damages, without specifying the amount, for the survivors of that time and the families of the victims.
“The President of the Iranian regime, Ebrahim Raisi, was personally responsible for sending thousands of political prisoners to the gallows in Tehran and in the city of Karaj, west of the capital”, commented in a press release. Soona Samsami, representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Washington, during the filing of the procedures in New York at the end of August.
“As head of the judiciary [entre 2019 et 2021], he personally oversaw the killing of at least 1,500 protesters during the November 2019 uprising. His record since taking office as president once again proves his criminality: 582 executions, including 22 women and 8 criminals juveniles since August 2021, which marks an almost 100% increase in executions compared to the previous year. »
Law and morals
However, the chances of success of such a lawsuit on American soil remain very slim, estimates the professor of international law Tom Ginsburg, joined by The duty at the University of Chicago. “International law is based on a system designed to help countries with very different moral and cultural bases to interact with each other,” he says. One of its core standards is immunity for heads of state, so the Iranian president could not be subject to legal proceedings in the United States” during his visit to the UN headquarters.
Belgium set a precedent in 2003, when it welcomed a lawsuit against former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his alleged responsibility for the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon, while he was Defense Minister of the Hebrew State. The procedure, initiated by a complaint filed by 23 survivors before the Belgian courts, established a temporary immunity linked to his function, and confirmed that he would be able to be dragged before the justice of this European country once his mandate ended. Under political pressure, however, the case was shelved a few months later.
Last July, Sweden sentenced to life imprisonment an Iranian ex-prosecutor, Hamid Noury, 61, who oversaw torture at the notorious Evin prison, north of Tehran, in 1988. The man is the first high-ranking officer of the Iranian regime tried abroad for this dark episode in the history of the Islamic Republic. He was arrested in Stockholm in November 2019 during a tourist visit, after a complaint was filed by several Iranian dissidents who were victims of the repression.
“There are a lot of documents and testimonies dating from this period which directly incriminate Ebrahim Raïssi and which could be used against him in a trial in the United States, said in an interview with the To have to Houchang Hassan-Yari, professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada and specialist in Iran. But this prospect is very uncertain in the current very tense context of the resumption of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear [entre le régime de Téhéran et le gouvernement de Joe Biden, entre autres]. The diplomatic risks are high, and it remains to be seen how American justice will stand up to that. »
Ironically, the Iranian president was placed on the sanctions lists of several countries, including that of the United States, because of his disregard for human rights and his participation in the violence of the Tehran regime during the 1980s. His ministerial cabinet is also made up of 12 members sanctioned by the United States, but also by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the UN for their support for the Iranian nuclear program, for their links with terrorist organizations or their non- – respect for human rights. The Ministers of Defence, of the Interior or of Petroleum are part of it.
The diplomatic risks are high and it remains to be seen how American justice will stand up to it.
slim hope
Since 1947, the agreement signed between the United States and the UN on the establishment of the headquarters of the organization obliges Washington to guarantee the rights of entry, movement and residence of those who have been invited to New York. by the United Nations. However, the United States has always had the option of saying “no” to visitors who could be qualified as a “threat to [leur] national security”.
“We have high hopes for this prosecution,” said Ahmad Hassani. If this were to force Ebrahim Raïssi to cancel his visit to New York, it would already be a victory and an affront for the Islamist regime. But the greatest victory would be to see him answer a judge’s questions, “adds the man contacted this week by The duty.
For 34 years, the families of the victims are still waiting to know the location where the bodies of the executed dissidents were buried, in order to be able to grieve.