Iran: President Raisi’s death must not deny victims of his grim human rights legacy their right to accountability
The death of president Ebrahim Raisi must not deny people in Iran their right to justice, truth and reparation for the litany of crimes under international law and human rights violations committed since the 1980s during his time in the echelons of power, said Amnesty International today, following his passing in a helicopter crash in East Azerbaijan province.
Ebrahim Raisi, who at the age of 20 was appointed as Prosecutor General of Karaj, Alborz province, in 1980, quickly rose through the ranks to assume various senior judicial and executive positions, before becoming president in 2021. Over the past 44 years, he was directly involved in or oversaw the enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions of thousands of political dissidents in the 1980s, the unlawful killing, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and torture of thousands of protesters; and violent persecution of women and girls defying compulsory veiling, among other serious human rights violations.
