A Way to Bring IRI Criminals to Justice

IRI criminals have been getting away with murder, rape and torture for too long. In the obvious absence of proper judicial vehicles to bring them to justice in Iran, we must look to other venues to hold them accountable for the crimes against humanity. The concept of Universal Jurisdiction is defined as:

“a principle in public international law (as opposed to private international law) whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting country. The state backs its claim on the grounds that the crime committed is considered a crime against all, which any state is authorized to punish, as it is too serious to tolerate jurisdictional arbitrage.”

There are a few nations that accept this legal principle, and allow for prosecution of human rights violators under their judicial systems. Wikipedia lists those countries. They are France, Belguim, Spain, Canada, Israel, Germany, Australia and United Kingdom. Taking out of the list Israel, whose own apartheid and human rights violations need to be addressed in a court somewhere, and Australia and Canada, which seem to be limited to narrow circumstances, we can focus on a few other countries on this list. Belgium, once a favorite venue for these types of cases, has restricted the ability to file universal jurisdiction cases.

I personally believe that Spain and the UK are good options. Cases for crimes against humanity and genocide can be filed against various IRI officials, including Khamenei, Pourmohamadi, Ahmadinejad, Rafsanjani and many others. The allegations can go back to the 1980’s and mass executions, use of child soldiers in the Iran / Iraq war and torture. In the more recent incidents, allegations can be indiscriminate killing of protesters, political executions such the most recent ones of the five Kurdish activists, rape, illegal arrests of members of the Baha’i faith and illegal arrests and torture of political opponents.

As the Wikipedia article points out, while there is precedence for these types of prosecutions, some countries require the actual presence of the accused in their territory. But that could even be a trip by the target person to that jurisdiction. For that to take place, one must prepare the case and “stake out” the target’s travel plans. Who knows, they take the bait.

Frankly, I am surprised that Iranians have not taken advantage of universal jurisdiction laws to go after IRI criminals. We have many talented lawyers in our communities all across the world. Perhaps it is time to put a group together and go after these scumbags.

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