![\"iranians-1988massacre-activitis\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/iranians-1988massacre-activitis.jpg\" "\\"iranians-1988massacre-activitis\\"")
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In the final week of August alone, Iranian communities held rallies<\/a> in at least six countries to call attention to unresolved crimes against humanity and to condemn what opposition activists have called Western strategies of \u201cappeasement\u201d vis-\u00e0-vis Iran\u2019s regime. The rallies took place in reaction to one prominent example of that strategy, and in anticipation of another. In July, it was revealed that Belgian authorities had entered into an agreement that could see the release of a convicted Iranian diplomat-terrorist, and it is expected that in September the Iranian regime\u2019s President Ebrahim Raisi will visit New York to take part in the 77th<\/sup> session of the United Nations General Assembly.<\/p>\n Supporters of the leading opposition, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization<\/a> of Iran, have been calling for the US government to deny Raisi a visa ever since it was revealed that he might attend. Their protests warn that by granting him permission to visit and to address an international audience, the US and the UN both risk legitimizing a criminal who stands accused of serious crimes against humanity, both historical and recent.<\/p>\n The PMOI was the prime target for a massacre of political prisoners that took place in the summer of 1988, and Raisi was a prime instrument of that massacre. As Tehran\u2019s deputy prosecutor at the time, Raisi was tapped to sit on the four-person \u201cdeath commission\u201d in the capital city, which oversaw the abrupt interrogations and ensuing executions of persons who were deemed guilty of \u201cenmity against God\u201d through their affiliation with the pro-democracy opposition. It is estimated that nationwide more than 30,000 people were killed during the massacre, with the greatest portion of those victims coming from the two prisons over which the Tehran death commission had authority.<\/p>\n Among the recent European and North American rallies, one in Toronto specifically served as a memorial to the victims of the 1988 massacre<\/a>, just ahead of Canada\u2019s \u201cDay of Solidarity with Iranian Political Prisoners,\u201d which parliament designated for September 1 in 2013. Several Canadian lawmakers spoke before that gathering, including Irwin Cotler, a former Justice Minister and Attorney General who noted that Canada\u2019s parliament was \u201cthe first parliament in the world to condemn this mass murder as a crime against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n That fact is a testament to how long the 1988 massacre has remained unresolved and underreported, despite having been brought to the international community\u2019s attention even as it was still ongoing. In September 2020, several UN human rights experts wrote an open letter to Iranian authorities on this topic and acknowledged that the international body would be responsible for resolving the issue if Tehran remained unwilling to take its own actions to hold known perpetrators accountable.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the authorities in question declined to respond to that letter, the authors of which stated that the UN\u2019s prior failure to act had \u201ca devastating impact on the survivors and families as well as on the general situation of human rights in Iran.\u201d The letter also described the Iranian regime as having been \u201cemboldened\u201d in its actions, confirming how the \u201cappeasement\u201d policy<\/a> and the western governments\u2019 negligence to vigorously pursue justice for Iranian terrorists and human rights abusers have fueled the crisis of impunity in Iran.<\/p>\n To date, only one person involved in the 1988 massacre has faced any meaningful accountability, namely the former Gohardasht Prison official Hamid Noury, who was arrested by Swedish authorities in 2019. The resulting trial proceeded on the basis of \u201cuniversal jurisdiction\u201d over serious violations of international law that remain unresolved anywhere in the world. In July, Noury was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes and mass murder, but the nearly simultaneous announcement of the Belgian-Iranian treaty for \u201cTransfer of Sentenced Persons\u201d promptly raised concerns about European governments\u2019 commitment to upholding such sentences.<\/p>\n Supporters of #Iran<\/a> opposition PMOI\/MEK rallied in the U.S. & Europe condemning the regime's rights violations & calling on the U.S. admin to deny a visa for Iranian regime President Ebrahim Raisi prior to next month\u2019s UN General Assembly.#NoVisa4Raisi<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/ScDf6YAczB<\/a><\/p>\n — People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) August 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n