Brand Ahmadinejad rights abuser: US senators

Editor’s Note: And we know what comes next . . . humanitarian aid

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
© AFP/File Philippe Lopez

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should formally brand Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and 25 other current and former Iranian officials as human rights abusers, senators urged Friday.

“We urge you to designate President Ahmadinejad as an Iranian human rights abuser,” Republican Senators Mark Kirk and Jon Kyl, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Independent Senator Joe Lieberman pressed Clinton in a letter.

The lawmakers pointed to Clinton’s comments, in a March 2 Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, that there was “certainly evidence” that Iran’s leadership, including Ahmadinejad, abused human rights.

The senators also noted that the European Union had designated 32 current or former Iranian officials as rights abusers, and that the United States has only done the same for seven of the people on that list.

“Therefore, we urge you to immediately investigate for possible designation as human rights abusers the following 25 individuals listed by the European Union as Iranian human rights abusers,” they said in the letter, which was obtained by AFP.

The list included the chief of Iran’s National Police, officers from the elite Revolutionary Guard, and senior judicial officials, including judges who managed cases tied to protests in 2009.

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