Iran: Swiss Federal Court Orders to Investigate the Murder of Dr. Kazem Rajavi as Genocide and Crime Against Humanity
(PMOI/MEK) & (NCRI): The court refers to the plaintiff’s reasoning that Professor Rajavi was assassinated in 1990 following the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, which should be, according to his reasoning, legally qualified as genocide & a crime against humanity.
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): The assassination of Dr. Rajavi was carried out by a 13-member commando team sent from Tehran on the direct order of then Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, against whom a Swiss court issued an international arrest warrant in 2006.
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): Following these exchanges, the case was finally sent to the Federal Criminal Court, Complaints’ section, in February 2021, where it was reviewed.
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): For 30 years, the public prosecutor of the canton of Vaud had dealt with the case as a “murder” case, but cases such as genocide and crimes against humanity fall under the exclusive competence of the public prosecutor of the Confederation.
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): Mr. Rajavi was killed on the spot. The perpetrators left Swiss soil in the hours following the crime and have since been the subject of international arrest warrants issued by the Swiss authorities, warrants which have today been lifted. “
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): The trial of an Iranian diplomat on charges of terrorism signals the end of impunity for the regime.
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): Assadi Sentenced to Long Prison in Belgium. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, highlighted, “Today, far beyond just this particular court, the entirety of the regime is being prosecuted before the world’s conscience, especially the people of Europe.
(PMOI / MEK Iran) and (NCRI): a bomb attack at the headquarters of the Israeli-Argentine Joint Association in Buenos Aires. An international arrest warrant was also issued in 2006 against Fallahian in connection with the present case".
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi: European governments and the U.S. must recognize the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran as genocide and a crime against humanity.
The Federal Criminal Court ruled that according to Swiss and international law the crime committed against Dr. Rajavi was not subjected to the statute of limitation.
Dr. Rajavi was assassinated by a 13-member hit squad sent from Tehran on the direct order of then-Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, against whom a Swiss court issued an international arrest warrant in 2006. The 13 terrorists were the subject of an international arrest warrant in 1997, and an international arrest warrant was issued for Fallahian in 1996.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi3, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the decision of the Swiss Federal Court as a historic turning point, affirming that genocide and crime against humanity should at no time and not anywhere be ignored based on the statute of limitations. This is a significant development and a legal precedent for contemporary law for all countries in five continents.
Mrs. Rajavi also called the court's decision a necessary step in countering the unbridled terrorism of the clerical regime, adding that the assassination of Dr. Rajavi was the continuation of the execution and massacre of the steadfast Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI)2, based on Khomeini's fatwa. The same heroes and heroines whom Kazem Rajavi defended on the international stage until his last day.
Mrs. Rajavi pointed out: The plot by the religious fascism ruling Iran to bomb a large resistance rally in Paris in June 2018, intended to cause mass casualties, as well as the murder of at least 1,500 protesters during the November 2019 uprising, clearly showed that terrorism and repression are inherent and indispensable to the ruling religious tyranny.
Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, and other regime leaders must be brought to justice before the International Court for four decades of crimes against humanity and genocide. European governments and the United States must recognize the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran as genocide and a crime against humanity.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), September 28, 2021
Excerpts from the decision of the Federal Criminal Court (TPF):
The TPF recalls that the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland refused to accept that the assassination of Kazem RAJAVI could be considered genocide and a crime against humanity because these international crimes were not recognized under Swiss law until 1983 and 2011, respectively.
For the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, an assassination committed in 1990 could not have a retroactive effect and be tried in Switzerland as genocide and a crime against humanity.
On the contrary, the TPF considers that Swiss law "enshrines a limited retroactivity of the rules on the impressibility of crimes which, on the day this rule is adopted, are not time-barred."
The TPF recalls that the complainant claims that the execution of Dr. Rajavi "was part of the context and continuity of the massacre of nearly 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 and systematic extra-judicial executions of political opponents in the years that followed.
This policy was desired by the highest leaders of the Iranian regime and implemented, in particular, the fatwa pronounced by Supreme Leader Khomeini."
"It is clear from the evidence established during the investigation that the execution of K. Rajavi, an activist of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, then under cover of political asylum in Switzerland since 1981, had already been decided and ordered in 1982 or 1983 by Fallahian, Minister of Intelligence and Security Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and responsible for directing the execution actions of opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Regime.
To plan the crime in question, Iranian commandos traveled to Switzerland three times between October 1989 and April 1990. During the last trip, the commandos composed of 13 people with Iranian service passports marked "chargé de mission" monitored the victim for several days before taking action on April 24, 1990.”
The investigation further "highlighted that the elimination of Iranian opponents was being carried out in several European countries. Assassinations were perpetrated between 1987 and 1993 in Hamburg, Vienna, Geneva, London, Dubai, and Paris.
Fallahian was placed under international arrest warrant by the German criminal courts in 1996 for playing a fundamental role in the assassinations of opponents and by the Argentine authorities in 2003 for organizing and coordinating a bomb attack at the headquarters of the Israeli-Argentine Joint Association in Buenos Aires. An international arrest warrant was also issued in 2006 against him in connection with the present case".
"The facts under investigation are likely to fall within the offenses of genocide and/or crimes against humanity, which the Office of the Attorney General of the Confederation does not seem to dispute."
"The murder at issue, in this case, may have been committed with genocidal intent or in the commission of crimes against humanity. Since those acts are not prescribed on January 1, 1983, or on January 1, 2011, respectively, they may be pursued without time limit'.
The TPF, therefore, refers the case to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland to initiate an investigation and award costs of CHF 2,000 - in favor of the complainant.
Shahin Gobadi
NCRI
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WATCH NOW: Assassination of Kazem Rajavi to be investigated in context of “genocide,” Swiss court rules at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZqRCUj5CnE
1 https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/about-ncri/alternative/
2 https://english.mojahedin.org/i/primer-the-history-the-peoples-mojahedin-organization-iran
3 https://www.maryam-rajavi.com/en/
