There was a short commentary in a site called Persian Letters (Notes of an Iranian Watcher) on April 5th, 2010 titled “” by Golnaz Esfandiari (will be enclosed as a comment). In it, the Iranian officials announced the formation of a special court to deal with the Iranian ex-pats who speak or act against IRI outside of Iran, out of Iran’s jurisdiction. This announcement was thought to be a reaction to the tremendous support by various groups outside Iran against IRI in light of the June 12th, 2009 election (or rather selection) fiasco. My reaction is “Why cannot we reciprocate?”
While not being a lawyer, I know that the International Court of Law in The Hague can deal with the criminal politicians who commit acts of violence against humanity, but my guess is that it will happen when IRI falls, mainly due to the laws governing sovereign immunity (am I right?). Nonetheless, countries like Argentina are able to issue arrest warrants to Iranian officials alleged to have bombed the Jewish center in Argentina in 1994. But, the act in Argentina was allegedly committed by IRI agents in another sovereign state. A more close case is Zahra Kazemi’s murder trial in Canada, ongoing now. The case was filed by her son, Stephan Hachemi, to bring justice to his beloved mother who was ruthlessly tortured, murdered and buried in a hurry in Iran to hide the evidence.
As the community of Iranians-Americans and Iranian- European and others in Australia and elsewhere, if we had more unity, we could have supported the formation of law centers that looked into these murders/tortures/rapes to bring lawsuits against responsible officials who unfortunately travel in and out of Iran with freaking impunity now. Maybe they would think twice about their atrocities, or at least not embrace them as they do now as a sign of Islamic justice, etc., and at best they would remain in Iran if they think that they will be tied in a lawsuit.
But, unfortunately, as someone said, all we can utter is I am against this or for that and everything else is wrong. When we learn to set a common goal as the binding agent amongst us, I am sure we will be more successful. Until then, name-calling, making fun of others or putting wedges…… as Mehrban called it, will just put a smile on IRI officials and their cronies here at IC.
Any comments from lawyers out there on “why cannot we reciprocate”?