Regime Criminal to Speak at UN Event on Monday

Persian2English – Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Iran’s Interior Minister and former Minister of Defense is set to speak on Monday in Vienna at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) 56th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

According to Daneshjoo News, Mohammad Najjar is on the U.S. human rights sanctions list, which was published in September 2010. The sanctions order states that individuals on the list are responsible for the “sustained and severe violation of human rights during or after Iran’s 2009 presidential election. The abuses included arrest, killing, torture, beating, blackmail and rape.”

Individuals on the U.S. sanctions list are barred from travel to the U.S., their assets in the U.S. or U.S. institutions are blocked, and Americans are prohibited from doing business with them.

Mohammad Najjar is on the U.S. human rights sanctions list because he was in charge of the Iranian regime’s response to protests during Ashura 2009, when numerous people were killed and hundreds were arrested and jailed. In Iran Mohammad Najjar has authority over all police forces, Interior Ministry security agents, and plainclothes agents.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of Iran Human Rights (IHR), who will be speaking about drug trafficking and the death penalty at a UNODC side event on Tuesday, says, “Mostafa Mohammad Najjar should be arrested by the Austrian police for his role in the killing of peaceful demonstrators on December 27, 2009. I hope Austrians and human rights groups in Austria will protest against Mr. Najjar’s presence in their country.”