LONDON: Protesters gathered outside the UN headquarters on Thursday to call for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to be denied entry to the US and prevented from speaking at the ongoing General Assembly.
Holding placards and banners accusing Raisi of being a mass murderer and containing the hashtags “#NoVisa4Raisi” and “#ProsecuteRaisiNow,” the National Council of Resistance of Iran protesters also called for regime change in the Asian country.
They accuse Raisi of the mass murder of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, killing 1,500 people during uprisings in November 2019 and overseeing the execution of nearly 600 people since coming to power in August last year.
One of the banners read: “UNGA and the USA is no place for a criminal and genocider.”
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of 52 US lawmakers asked President Joe Biden to deny Raisi entry to New York, while 500 Iranian-American professionals sent an open letter to Biden last week urging him to block the visit.
“Raisi should stand trial before international tribunals for crimes against humanity and genocide,” the letter said.
Raisi, who has been under US sanctions since November 2019 for “complicity in serious human rights violations,” did not attend last year’s General Assembly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a pre-recorded video of his address was played to the meeting instead.
