Kazem Rajavi

Dr. Kazem Rajavi (Persian: کاظم رجوی‎) (8 February 1934 – 24 April 1990) was a renowned human rights advocate and the elder brother of Iranian Mujahedin leader Massoud Rajavi.[1] When, in 1971, Masood Rajavi was arrested and sentenced to death, Kazem Rajavi managed to prevent the execution by forming an international campaign and changing the verdict to life imprisonment.[2][3]

Kazem Rajavi
کاظم رجوی
Ambassador of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva
In office
1979–1980
PresidentAbulhassan Banisadr
Prime MinisterMehdi Bazargan
Mohammad-Ali Rajai
Preceded byJafar Nadim
Succeeded byMostafa Dabiri
Personal details
Born8 February 1934
Tabas, Iran
Died24 April 1990 (aged 56)
Coppet, Switzerland
Political partyNational Council of Resistance of Iran

He engaged in international endeavors to defend human rights in Iran.[4] At the age of 56, he held six doctorate degrees in the fields of law, political science, and sociology from the universities of Paris and Geneva. He was a faculty member of the higher institute of international law at University of Geneva.[5] He is believed to have been assassinated by Islamic Republic of Iran agents.[6]

Career

Kazem Rajavi was Iran's first Ambassador to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[7] Shortly after his appointment, he resigned his post in protest to the "repressive policies and terrorist activities of the ruling clerics in Iran". He then intensified his campaign against mass executions, arbitrary arrests, and torture carried out by Iran's theocratic leadership.

He became the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Switzerland, where he was a university professor in Geneva.

162 members of Congress referred to Kazem Rajavi as "a great advocate of human rights, who had dedicated his life to establishment of democracy in his homeland."[7]

Rajavi had received several threats from agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but continued his work as a dissident and human rights activist.[6]

Death

On 24 April 1990, he was gunned down in broad daylight by several agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of Iran as he was driving to his home in Coppet, a municipality near Geneva.[1] According to a Washington Post report in 1993, Kazem Rajavi's assassination, presumably provides the clearest example of Tehran connection.[8][9]

Rajavi's assassination required enormous resources, extensive planning, and coordination among several of the Iranian governments' organizations. After extensive investigations, Roland Chatelain, the Swiss magistrate in charge of the case, and Swiss judicial and police officials confirmed the role of Iran's government under Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the participation of thirteen official agents of the Iranian government who had used "service passports" to enter Switzerland for their plot.

Swiss magistrates later issued an international arrest warrant for a former Iranian intelligence minister, Ali Fallahian. Fallahian along with 13 Iranian diplomats are wanted on charges of murdering Kazem Rajavi. The perpetrators, however managed to flee Swisse. Their search has been ongoing since then, while international arrest warrants have been issued.[10]

The European Parliament "condemned the Islamic Republic both for the assassination and for the continuous violation of human rights inside and outside the country." In 1992, French security agents arrested two people in Paris suspected of assassinating Kazem Rajavi. Swiss security agents requested their extradition, and a French court authorized it. However, the French government refused the extradition, explaining that "it was of a superior interest to France not to extradite them". The two suspects, named Mohsen Sharif Esfahani and Ahmed Taheri, were then extradited to Iran.[6]

In 1996 during a trip to Turkey to help Iranian refugees, Zahra Rajabi and a senior figure in the NCRI were killed by a hit squad.[7]

Pursuit of perpetrators

In the investigation of this case, Switzerland announced the possibility of the involvement of several Iranian government officials in this murder, along with the publication of the names of 14 suspects,[11] which led to the issue of an international arrest warrant in 2006 tor ali Fallahian, the time Iran's Ministry of Intelligence on charges of murder.[12] However, the Office of the Attorney General of the Canton of Wu, west of Switzerland, announced on May 29, 2020, that the case was subject to the passage of time, and the investigation will be stopped soon and the case will be closed unless the lawyers officially register any considerations before June 17, 2020.[13]

The decision of the Swiss prosecutor's office was strongly protested by the National Council of Resistance of Iran which issued a statement condemning it,[14] and demanded that the case be reopened.[15][16] NCRI also called for Issuance of international arrest warrants for Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani, then secretary of Iran's Supreme Security Council, and Ali Akbar Velayati, the then foreign minister.[17][18][19]

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References
  1. "Iran: Chronology of Events: June 1989 - July 1994". UNHCR. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  2. "Biography of Massoud Rajavi". San Diego, CA Patch. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  3. "History of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI) | mek-iran". stopfundamentalism.com. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  4. "KILLING OF IRANIAN DISSENTERS: 'BLOODY TRAIL BACK TO TEHRAN'". Washington Post.
  5. "The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Chooses Nicolas Michel, President of our Board, as its Next President - The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights". www.geneva-academy.ch. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  6. Cohen, Ronen (August 2018). "The Mojahedin-e Khalq versus the Islamic Republic of Iran: from war to propaganda and the war on propaganda and diplomacy". Middle Eastern Studies. 54 (6).
  7. Alireza Jafarzadeh (2008). The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. XViii. ISBN 978-0230601284.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  8. Atkinson, Rick (21 November 1993). "KILLING OF IRANIAN DISSENTERS: 'BLOODY TRAIL BACK TO TEHRAN'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  9. SANCTON, THOMAS (24 June 2001). "The Tehran Connection". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  10. "NCRI Condemns Closing Kazem Rajavi assassination case by Switzerland". Iran Freedom. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  11. "NCRI Condemns Closing Kazem Rajavi assassination case by Switzerland". Iran Freedom. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  12. "Swiss orders arrest of Iranian ex-minister". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  13. AFP/ts. "Swiss to drop 30-year-old murder case of Iranian opposition leader". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  14. "NCRI protests Swiss decision to drop investigation into murder of opposition figure". Al Arabiya English. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  15. "Iran: The Decision to Close Dr. Kazem Rajavi's Assassination Case Justifies Crime Against Humanity". NCRI. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  16. editor-m. "Swiss Gov Has A Moral Obligation to Pursue Assassins of Prof. Kazem Rajavi". irannewsupdate.com. Retrieved 15 June 2020.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  17. "تصمیم سوئیس برای پایان تحقیق درباره ترور «کاظم رجوی» مورد اعتراض قرار گرفت | صدای آمریکا فارسی". ir.voanews.com (in Persian). Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  18. radiofarda. "دادستانی سوئیس پرونده ترور برادر رهبر سازمان مجاهدین خلق را مختومه می‌کند". رادیو فردا (in Persian). Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  19. Editor1. "شديدترين اعتراض به دولت سويس بخاطر بستن پرونده قاتلان دكتر كاظم رجوي - شورای ملی مقاومت ایران". www.iranncr.org (in Persian). Retrieved 15 June 2020.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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