Victims of 1988 Iranian ‘death commission’ file suit in NYC against Iran president Raisi
Members of an Iranian opposition group have filed a lawsuit against the president of Iran for his role in the 1988 massacre of dissidents just weeks before he intends to speak before the U.N. General Assembly.
“The plaintiffs actually suffered the injuries that they claim they suffered; the people who were murdered actually were murdered. They were killed,” Steven Schneebaum, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the victims, told Fox News Digital.
“There’s no doubt about that. Amnesty International confirms it. The State Department confirms it … We’re asking for an opportunity to tell our story in public in front of a federal judge, and I think my clients are entitled to that.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021 after an election marked by low turnout and accusations of election rigging.
Amnesty International cites a figure between 4,500 and 5,000 men, women and children killed in prisons across Iran, with “the true number of dead … still unknown as the executions were carried out in secret.” A book published by Hossein Ali Montazeri, once known as Ayatollah Khomeini’s former deputy, cited a figure as high as 30,000, according to the Daily Telegraph.
“In the summer of 1988, Raisi and his cohorts literally determined who would live and who would die, and as many as 30,000 people were taken out to be executed, to be hanged sometimes in groups as large as 12 after hearings,” said Schneebaum, who also serves as an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
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