GENEVA: A legal complaint called Monday for Swiss authorities to arrest Iran’s president during an expected visit and charge him with crimes against humanity connected to a 1988 purge of dissidents.
The complaint asks Swiss federal public prosecutor Andreas Muller to ensure the arrest and prosecution of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi “over his participation in acts of genocide, torture, extrajudicial executions and other crimes against humanity.”
Raisi was expected to participate in the United Nations Global Refugee Forum, which begins in Geneva on Wednesday, but the UN said Monday evening that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would lead the Iranian delegation, an indication that Raisi might not show.
The legal complaint against him, seen by AFP, was dated Monday. The prosecutor’s office did not immediately confirm that it had been received.
It was filed by three alleged victims from Iran’s crackdown on dissidents in the 1980s.
Rights groups have long campaigned for justice over alleged extrajudicial executions of thousands of mainly young people across Iranian prisons within a few months in the summer of 1988, just as the war with Iraq was ending.
Those killed were mainly supporters of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran, known by the abbreviations MEK or PMOI, a group considered a terrorist organization by Iran that backed Baghdad during the conflict.
The petitioners behind Monday’s complaint said they could personally identify Raisi as figuring on a commission that sent thousands of jailed opponents to their deaths during the crackdown.
He was serving as deputy prosecutor general of Tehran at the time, and was among the most eager on his commission to sentence prisoners to death, the complaint said.
The main petitioner, Reza Shemiriani, was arrested in 1981 and was one of fewer than 150 of the 5,000 prisoners detained in his cell bloc who survived the 1988 purge, according to the complaint.
Raisi had asked him what group he belonged to, and when he said MEK, “his death sentence was assured,” the complaint said, adding that Shemiriani still did not know why his life was spared.
Instead he remained in prison until 1991, facing daily torture, the complaint said.
The two other petitioners had also been in Iranian prisons in 1988, and said they recognized Raisi “as a member of the death commission,” according to the complaint.
In parallel to the legal complaint, an international campaign is also underway expressing outrage at Raisi’s participation in the UN refugee forum, and urging his prosecution for “involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law.”
“Raisi was a key perpetrator of the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners. His presence at the UN forum contradicts the fundamental values the UN stands for,” said the petition.
So far it has gathered more than 200 signatures from dignitaries including Nobel laureates, judges, former ministers, parliamentarians, academics and UN rights experts.
“We firmly believe that the United Nations, as a bastion of human rights and justice, should not compromise its reputation by extending an invitation to an individual accused of grave human rights violations,” it said, urging the UN to “promptly rescind its invitation to Raisi.”
When asked about the petition, forum host UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, told AFP that “Iran is a member state of the United Nations and therefore invited to the Global Refugee Forum.”
“Iran has also been one of the largest refugee hosting countries for over 40 years,” a spokesman said in an email, adding that “the Iranian delegation will be led by the foreign minister.”
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Iran president targeted with ‘crimes against humanity’ complaint in Switzerland
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Iran president targeted with ‘crimes against humanity’ complaint in Switzerland
- Legal complaint filed by three alleged victims from Iran’s crackdown on dissidents in 1980s
Sweeping US defense bill passes Congress, including real of Syria sanctions
WASHINGTON: The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance a $901 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon, sending the massive piece of legislation to the White House, which has said President Donald Trump will sign it into law. The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is a compromise between separate measures passed earlier this year in the House of Representatives and Senate. It authorizes a record $901 billion in annual military spending, with a 4 percent pay raise for the troops. It also authorizes reforms to the system for acquiring military equipment and includes efforts to boost competitiveness with US archrivals China and Russia.
The Senate backed the bill by 77 to 20, with strong support from both parties. Two of the “no” votes were from Republican senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
“This will be the 65th year in a row, the 65th consecutive year, that Congress has come together across the aisle and across two chambers to send the president a bill designed to sustain and strengthen the national defense,” said Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman. The House passed the bill last week, by 312 to 112, also with broad bipartisan support. In a break with Trump, whose fellow Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate, this year’s NDAA includes several provisions to boost security in Europe, despite Trump’s release earlier this month of a National Security Strategy seen as friendly to Russia and a reassessment of the US relationship with Europe.
The fiscal 2026 NDAA provides $800 million for Ukraine — $400 million in each of the next two years — as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays US companies for weapons for Ukraine’s military.
It also authorizes the Baltic Security Initiative and provides $175 million to support Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia’s defense. And it limits the Department of Defense’s ability to drop the number of US forces in Europe to fewer than 76,000 and bars the US European Commander from giving up the title of NATO Supreme Commander.
WINS FOR BOTH PARTIES
Members of Congress take great pride in having passed the NDAA every year for more than six decades.
The measure’s record price tag is $8 billion more than Trump had requested. This month a handful of Republicans and Democrats called for the addition of a provision to strengthen military helicopter safety rules, following a fatal crash between an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines passenger jet that killed 67 people.
Anger over that issue was not strong enough to derail the NDAA. Senate leaders have promised to address it in upcoming legislation. The NDAA also repeals the tough “Caesar” sanctions imposed on Syria under its former leader Bashar Assad. And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers. The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress’ role in deciding to send troops into combat.
During his first term, Trump said the 2002 AUMF provided legal authority for the 2020 killing in Iraq of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
The NDAA does not include funding to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, an idea championed by Trump but a change that cannot be formalized without congressional approval.
However, it includes some of the “culture war” efforts popular with politicians on the US right. One measure bars transgender women from participating in athletic programs designated for women at US military academies.
It also codifies into law executive orders by Trump ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Pentagon.
The Senate backed the bill by 77 to 20, with strong support from both parties. Two of the “no” votes were from Republican senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
“This will be the 65th year in a row, the 65th consecutive year, that Congress has come together across the aisle and across two chambers to send the president a bill designed to sustain and strengthen the national defense,” said Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman. The House passed the bill last week, by 312 to 112, also with broad bipartisan support. In a break with Trump, whose fellow Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate, this year’s NDAA includes several provisions to boost security in Europe, despite Trump’s release earlier this month of a National Security Strategy seen as friendly to Russia and a reassessment of the US relationship with Europe.
The fiscal 2026 NDAA provides $800 million for Ukraine — $400 million in each of the next two years — as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays US companies for weapons for Ukraine’s military.
It also authorizes the Baltic Security Initiative and provides $175 million to support Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia’s defense. And it limits the Department of Defense’s ability to drop the number of US forces in Europe to fewer than 76,000 and bars the US European Commander from giving up the title of NATO Supreme Commander.
WINS FOR BOTH PARTIES
Members of Congress take great pride in having passed the NDAA every year for more than six decades.
The measure’s record price tag is $8 billion more than Trump had requested. This month a handful of Republicans and Democrats called for the addition of a provision to strengthen military helicopter safety rules, following a fatal crash between an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines passenger jet that killed 67 people.
Anger over that issue was not strong enough to derail the NDAA. Senate leaders have promised to address it in upcoming legislation. The NDAA also repeals the tough “Caesar” sanctions imposed on Syria under its former leader Bashar Assad. And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers. The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress’ role in deciding to send troops into combat.
During his first term, Trump said the 2002 AUMF provided legal authority for the 2020 killing in Iraq of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
The NDAA does not include funding to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, an idea championed by Trump but a change that cannot be formalized without congressional approval.
However, it includes some of the “culture war” efforts popular with politicians on the US right. One measure bars transgender women from participating in athletic programs designated for women at US military academies.
It also codifies into law executive orders by Trump ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Pentagon.
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