Former ICC Judge: Historical duty exists to punish perpetrators of Iran’s 1988 massacre
- Thursday, 08 December 2016 10:53
NCRI - Fatoumata Diarra, a former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), told a conference in Paris that the Iranian regime's current Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi was one of the key perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran.
On November 26, a meeting was held in Paris, titled "Call for Justice: Ending Impunity for Perpetrators of Crimes Against Humanity in Iran and Syria."
The Present-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, was the keynote speaker. There were also speeches by French and European political and legal figures as well as top Syrian opposition officials and representatives of countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
Judge Fatoumata Dembele Diarra in parts of her speech said:
"The crimes and atrocities perpetrated in Iran, notably the 1988 massacre, are considered in the preamble to the ICC Statute as crimes that defy imagination and are profoundly offensive to human conscience and pose a threat to global peace and security, thus affecting the entire international community by their gravity.
These crimes, therefore, cannot go unpunished, and their prosecution must be ensured either at the national level or by the international community. Since it is obvious at the Iranian national level nothing will be done to punish these criminals, so the onus is on the international community, as well states, NGOs and the international organization known as the United Nations.
So we are facing a situation where crimes against humanity have been perpetrated and they have to be punished.
Having said that, I will say here that, in the case of proven facts, followed by the confessions of certain well-known actors such as the Minister of Justice, there is a historical duty for justice to be carried out. Geoffrey Robertson quoted a person who said that the unpunished Iranian massacres will be an eternal shame for Iran. I say that it is an eternal shame for the entire international community. So, I say to myself, then, which country, in order to be consistent with the great principles of democracy, justice and respect for humanity as it claims, will undertake to bring this recommendation before the United Nations as soon as possible?
I conclude with the hope of finding an answer to this question by paying tribute to the NGOs and the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which are striving in the search for solutions to this impunity after the massacre of 30,000 innocent Iranian citizens. Thank yo
