2023-08-29 12:48:31
Two associations filed a complaint Monday in Paris against Ghafoor Kargari, the president of the Iranian National Paralympic Committee. The French collective Femme Azadi and the Swedish NGO House of Liberty accuse him of torture and suspect him of crimes against humanity.
Published on: 08/29/2023 – 12:48
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A bad guest. Two associations filed a complaint Monday, August 28 in Paris against Ghafoor Kargari, president of the Iranian National Paralympic Committee currently visiting France, whom they accuse of torture and suspect of crimes against humanity.
Ghafoor Kargari, member of the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, is in France within the framework of the seminar of the heads of mission of the Paralympic committees, confirmed the Organizing Committee (Cojo) to AFP.
A “political and ethical fault”
The issuance of a visa by the French public authorities and then the arrival of Ghafoor Kargari are a “political and ethical fault”, was indignant Me Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for the French collective Femme Azadi and the Swedish NGO House of Liberty.
We have filed a complaint in collaboration with House of Liberty via our lawyer Maître Daoud at the Paris anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office against GHAFOOR KARGARI, currently in Paris and a member of the body of guardians of the Islamic republic! pic.twitter.com/yB3jSp0ke6
– Azadi Woman Association (@womanazadi) August 28, 2023
The two associations present Ghafoor Kargari, born in 1962, as a “former commander and prominent member of the Al-Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” (IRGC), the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.
“The IRGC and the Al-Quds group have been at the forefront of the violent repression of peaceful movements fighting for democracy, civil rights and equality between women and men in Iran”, accuses the complaint, seen by AFP and filed with the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office.
The latest protest movement in Iran was triggered by the death in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being arrested by the morality police, who accused her of not having respected the obligation of the veil.
Read alsoIran accused of intimidating families of victims before anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death
Hundreds of people, including dozens of members of the security forces, were killed during protests in the fall of 2022, while thousands were arrested, accused by the authorities of taking part in fomented “riots” by Western countries.
The arrival of Ghafoor Kargari in France is “an affront and an insult for all the victims of Iranian repression, starting with women”, estimated Me Daoud to AFP.
Accused of complicity in “acts of barbarism”
Ghafoor Kargari is also presented in the complaint as one of the founders of the Islamic Resistance Movement of Azerbaijan, “an Azerbaijani Shiite Islamist armed group supported and financed by the IRGC” in opposition to the power in place in this neighboring country. Iran.
Because of these functions, the plaintiffs believe that Ghafoor Kargari “necessarily participated in or became an accomplice to the acts of barbarism and torture perpetrated by these groups in Iran, Azerbaijan and more generally in the Caucasus and in Central Asia”.
Then hierarchical and military superior, the current president of the National Paralympic Committee is accused of having “participated in the design and implementation of the policy and strategy of these two groups, which could also qualify his actions as crimes against humanity”.
Head of the Caucasus Corps within the Al-Quds Force, Ghafoor Kargari “was responsible for or involved in all the activities of this organization in the Caucasus States and Central Asia and in direct relation with (some) terrorist and Islamic organizations in Azerbaijan regarding the attacks organized in this region in recent years”, assure the associations.
In April, Azerbaijan announced the expulsion of four members of the Iranian embassy in Baku, accusing Tehran of plotting a coup attempt. Relations between the two neighbors are traditionally delicate. Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan is a close ally of Turkey, Iran’s historic rival, and buys weapons from Israel, Tehran’s great adversary.
With AFP
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