Scores of Nobel laureates, former heads of state and government, and former senior UN officials have demanded an international probe into the alleged killings of dissidents in Iran’s prisons in 1988.
In an open letter to UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet made public on Wednesday, over 150 signatories backed a call for the international community to investigate the cases.
Twenty-eight former UN rights experts, the former chief prosecutor of the UN criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, former premiers and government ministers and six Nobel laureates had also signed.
Rights groups have long campaigned for justice over alleged extrajudicial executions of thousands of mainly young people across Iranian prisons in 1988, just as the war with Iraq was ending.
Those killed were mainly supporters of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK or PMOI), which was banned in Iran had backed Baghdad during the conflict.
Last September, seven independent UN rights experts wrote to the Iranian government expressing concern by the alleged continued refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of those killed.
They have urged a thorough and independent investigation and accurate death certificates to be provided to family members, they say the situation may amount to crimes against humanity.
They also called for an international probe if Tehran continued “to refuse to uphold its obligations.
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