29th May 2024 - The United Nations has announced it plans to hold a memorial service on the occasion of the death of Ebrahim Raisi, President of the Iranian regime. Dennis Francis, President of the UN General Assembly wrote a letter to Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, requesting that a memorial be held to "pay tribute to the memory of the late President of the Islamic Republic of Iran", on 30th May at the General Assembly Hall in New York.
This comes as a number of members of both the UN and the EU Parliament have sent messages of condolences following the death of Raisi and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who was the Foreign Affairs Minister of the regime. At the same time, many more representatives have taken to social media with #NotInMyName to show their stance against these condolences.
AWYAF is appalled at this shameful decision to hold a memorial for such a man who was responsible for the execution of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988 in Iran, as well as subsequent deaths and executions of hundreds of protesters in recent mass protests and uprisings. Raisi's legacy, both as the Head of the Judiciary and then as President, is one of suppression, murder, and daily human rights abuses. The international community should condemn his actions, not condole his death.
To this end, AWYAF, as well as hundreds of members of the Iranian diaspora, have written a letter to the Secretary General, urging him to cancel this memorial service, and, rather than condoling Raisi, offering their condolences to the families of those who have lost loved ones at the hands of Raisi.
We would also like to reiterate that the news of Ebrahim Raisi's death news does not negatively impact our campaigns and activities to stop executions and seek justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre. The Iranian people face a bitter-sweet moment of celebration of the death of the "Butcher of Tehran", while also being painfully aware that he will now never have his day in court to face justice for his crimes. However, we will continue to work even harder to make sure that all of the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity are brought to justice.
Our letter to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres reads as follows:
