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On Thursday, the U.K.-based Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI)<\/a> held a press conference at the Church House in London, to reiterate its longstanding call for an international inquiry into what has been called the Iranian regime\u2019s single worst crime against humanity. The press conference was preceded on Tuesday by the publication of an open letter addressed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and signed by 463 prominent individuals and institutions.<\/p>\n Former UN Human Rights Section Chief in Iraq and JVMI President Tahar Boumedra described the letter<\/a> and its underlying campaign as \u201cthe largest international call on the UN in history by the international expert and human rights community to hold Iranian officials accountable over the 1988 massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n Boumedra led Thursday\u2019s press conference alongside former UK Minister for International Development Baroness Verma and Struan Stevenson, a former Scottish member of the European Parliament and current director of the Campaign for Change in Iran. Verma used the event to comment upon the potential impact of the letter, noting that it would likely reinforce the prior finding of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that there are \u201cno legal barriers to an international inquiry into the massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter itself urged the Human Rights Council \u201cto urgently challenge the impunity enjoyed by Iranian officials by mandating an international investigation into the 1988 mass executions and enforced disappearances of thousands of political prisoners which constitute ongoing crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n The reference to \u201cimpunity\u201d was reminiscent of a number of previous statements from JVMI and other organizations, including one from Amnesty International which referred to the June election of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as a \u201cgrim reminder that impunity reigns supreme\u201d in the country\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n In 1988, Raisi was the deputy prosecutor for Tehran, and following a fatwa from Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini regarding organized opposition to the theocratic regime, he became a key perpetrator of the resulting massacre. Raisi was one of four officials who sat on the Tehran \u201cdeath commission,\u201d which oversaw the interrogation and execution of political detainees in Evin and Gohardasht Prisons.<\/p>\n His personal authority was later expanded to other localities upon Khomeini\u2019s direct order, apparently as a result of his particular commitment to fully implementing the fatwa.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s letter quoted the 1988 document as targeting Iran\u2019s leading opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran PMOI\/MEK)<\/a>, and decreeing that those who \u201cremain steadfast in their support\u201d are \u201cwaging war on God and are condemned to execution.\u201d<\/p>\n The allegation of genocide appeared in the first paragraph of JVMI\u2019s press statement regarding Thursday\u2019s press conference, while also labeling the massacre more generally as a \u201ccrime against humanity.\u201d This description seems indisputable on account of the fact that the death commissions in Tehran and various other cities are reputed to have ordered hangings or deaths by firing squad for more than 30,000 political prisoners over a period of about three months.<\/p>\n JVMI Press Conference in London, 27 Jan:<\/p>\n Global call for accountability and an international investigation into the #1988Massacre<\/a> in Iran<\/p>\n It's time for the UN to end impunity for crimes against humanity & genocide<\/p>\n CC: @mbachelet<\/a> @UN_Spokesperson<\/a> @UN_HRC<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/ye5CbcXkR7<\/a><\/p>\n — JVMI (@jvmifoundation) January 26, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n