New Iranian President Candidate Known for Death Commission
Iran’s Judiciary Chief, Judge Ebrahim Raisi, declared his candidacy for the presidential election taking place next month. Raisi was appointed by the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to his current post in March 2019. Raisi has run for elections previously and is perhaps most well-known for his involvement in the Death Commission, a group of “judges” who sentenced 30,000 prisoners to death in minutes-long trials in 1988.
Raisi was quoted in local media as saying, “I have come as an independent to the stage to make changes in the executive management of the country and to fight poverty, corruption, humiliation and discrimination.” Yet under his guidance as judiciary chief, more than 620 executions have taken place, the majority originating in unfair trials and minority groups.
Christian convert Zaman Saheb Fadaie is one of the Christians and minorities that suffered under Judge Raisi’s sentencing. He received 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. The use of torture for forced confessions is commonplace, as well as extended solitary confinement, denial of medical care, beatings, and denial of food or water.