Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi cancels Geneva trip amid calls for his arrest
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will not be attending the World Refugee Forum in Geneva.
The Iranian delegation will be led by diplomatic chief Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA on Tuesday.
Mr. Raisi was due to address the forum on Wednesday. However, three Iranian opponents living in Switzerland have called on the Swiss Office of the Attorney General to arrest him. This appeal is supported by 330 personalities in a separate statement. Among them are five Swiss citizens, including parliamentarian Philippe Nantermod.
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In a petition sent to Federal Prosecutor Andreas Müller, which Keystone-SDA viewed on Monday, the petitioners call for the Iranian president to be investigated for genocide and crimes against humanity. He is accused of having participated in torture and extrajudicial executions during the 1988 massacre of tens of thousands of opponents.
As a member of a commission charged with deciding who would be killed, Mr. Raisi is allegedly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, according to the petition. At the time, he was deputy prosecutor general of Tehran province. The three opponents point out that immunity does not apply to crimes against humanity.
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