London, 27 September 2022: As protests shake Iran, the Iran Atrocities (Aban) Tribunal will deliver its final judgement on the role of Iranian officials in the repression of November 2019 protests on September 30th in London.
The Iran Atrocities Tribunal will meet its goal of serving a judgement on the crimes against humanity committed during the November 2019 protests by the authorities, and will hear the decision of the panel of appointed judges.
The Tribunal’s evidence was amassed from 250 witnesses, 50 of whom testified verbally in the two sessions in November 2021 and February 2022. Most of the witnesses testified from within Iran, many of whom are facing reprisals for their honesty.
“The delivery of judgement coincides with the protests happening right now on Iran’s streets – people are facing the same brutality by the regime as they did in November 2019. The judgement will reveal the ugly truth behind the perpetrators who are ordering the deaths of their own citizens,” says Hamid Sabi, the co-Counsel to the Tribunal.
As it stands, 160 officials have been accused of crimes against humanity by the prosecution – these crimes include murder, torture, sexual assault and enforced disappearances. Besides this, the families of those killed have been subject to repeated interrogations, harassment, and many have been unable to grieve their loss.
“Aban Tribunal’s findings are a warning. If the international community does not act on the violence against people in Iran now, November 2019 will be repeated. We are already seeing the regime resort to its previous behaviours as a result of long standing impunity,” says Regina Paulose, co-Counsel to the Iran Atrocities Tribunal.
Among the over 250 witnesses are bereaved families, Iranian citizens with pellets still lodged in their bodies, and the officers that put them there. The Iranian authorities have refused to initiate a judicial or criminal enquiry into how the protests were handled, on the orders of the Supreme Leader.
The Iran’s Atrocities Tribunal is an independent People’s Tribunal that was established to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity by the Islamic Republic of Iran against civilians during peaceful demonstrations in November 2019. Thousands were killed and injured – many are still languishing in prison.