Pence: Iran's President Raisi 'Must be Prosecuted for Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide'

CNS News) -- Speaking at the 2021 Free Iran Summit today in Washington, D.C., former Vice President Mike Pence, a Republican, said that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a prominent leader in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 Iranian political activists, "must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide."

Raisi, 60, assumed office as president of Iran on Aug. 3, 2021. As is well documented, under the order of then-Ayatollah Khomeini, Raisi helped set up the 1988 "death commissions" that killed thousands of Iranian citizens.

The recent selection of Ebrahim Raisi to serve as Iran's president, I believe is a sign of the regime's growing desperation and vulnerability," said Pence at the summit, sponsored by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.   

"Thirty years ago, Raisi was in charge of the ayatollah's death squads," said Pence, "and he's now the president of that country, a brutal mass murderer responsible in 1988 for the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners."

"His selection as president is clearly intended to quash internal dissent and intimidate the people of Iran into remaining silent," added Pence. "But we must never remain silent in the face of evil."

Many people attending today know well just how evil Raisi is," said the former vice president.  "Many of you gathered here, and many of you looking on lost loved ones by Raisi's hand. You lost your homes, your livelihoods. And as I heard in a meeting just before we gathered here, some of you barely escaped his grip with your lives."

So, today, with other distinguished Americans, we join you in pledging his crimes must not go unpunished," said Pence. "Ebrahim Raisi must be removed from office by the people of Iran, and he must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide."

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/international/michael-w-chapman/pence-irans-president-raisi-must-be-prosecuted-crimes

In a 2019 statement on Iran's domestic and foreign oppression, the U.S. Treasury Department said, "as deputy prosecutor general of Tehran, Raisi participated in a so-called 'death commission' that ordered the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988."