The daughter of a woman killed by Iranian security forces has called on Andy Burnham to bring the country's officials to justice. Mahsa Piraei's mother, Minoo Majidi, was shot dead with metal pellets while fleeing Iranian officers in September 2022 during the Woman Life Freedom uprising, which was triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Amnesty report names 87 officials
Amnesty International published a report on the fourth anniversary of the uprisings, naming 87 officials it believes should be investigated for war crimes over the crackdown on protests. The report concluded that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their suppression of the 2022 uprising, including the killing of 49 children and 45 cases of sexual violence in custody, as well as torture and the use of deadly force against protesters.
Minoo Majidi was shot with metal pellets at close range in Kermanshah on September 20, four days after the uprising began, while she and other demonstrators were fleeing a crackdown from officers who were 'repeatedly firing shotguns'.
Daughter's plea for justice
Speaking at a press conference in central London, Mahsa Piraei said: 'My mother wanted freedom and change. She wanted a better future for the younger generations.' She added: 'She was killed by a system, a system in which some gave the orders, others carried them out, and those at the highest levels of power oversaw this violence.'
Mahsa, who lives in Leeds, told Metro that Burnham had to act to get justice for her mother, saying the British government had not done enough to punish those responsible. She said: 'Since Women Life Freedom Movement, we used to go weekly into London and other cities of the UK to ask the government to put the terrorist regime of Iran on the terrorist list, and they didn't listen to us. Recently there has been some movement, but I think it's not enough. They need to isolate the regime as much as they can. I want the UN to hear the voice of popular people of Iran and make the regime responsible for the many lives we lost.'
Call for international action
Amnesty is calling for an international criminal justice mechanism to be established urgently by the UN General Assembly to ensure Iranian authorities are held to account. The group says the world is 'disconnected from reality' about the oppression within Iran, whose officials they say have faced 'no meaningful consequences'.
Amnesty gathered information and evidence about the deaths of 377 protesters and bystanders, including 56 children, during the uprising. This includes one teenager, Amirhossein Basati, 15, who they say was killed by an IRGC agent when he stopped to retrieve his slipper as he fled a mass shooting.
Amnesty's Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, called on Burnham to lead the UN General Assembly to hold Iranian officials to account next week. She told Metro: 'At the Security Council, we would want them to stand up and say enough is enough. The paralysis of the Security Council is killing people in Iran. I expect them [the UK] to try to lobby and advocate with the U.S. with Russia, and with China to move forward. We are hoping that a country like the UK could play a lead role at the General Assembly and support a judicial mechanism being put forward. The UK needs to stand up. It has the backbone, has the history, has the political know-how, and they must do more than what they have done so far for the people of Iran.'
Callamard acknowledged that the UK led the call, alongside international partners, for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to address the human rights situation in Iran, and supported the extension of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. However, she cautioned: 'They may have said the right thing at various times, but that is not enough.'
The human rights group also wants individual countries to initiate their own investigations into Iranian officials under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Callamard said the UK had the legal resources 'to do far more than they have done' to hold Iran to account, including by conducting structural investigation into the chain of command and possibly going after individuals when these are on UK territory.
Amnesty said it wrote to Iran's Supreme Leader and senior security officials to share their findings and notify the 87 officials identified in the report, but did not receive a response.
