This gesture by France sends the message that France will not be bullied by Iran.
But many questions remain outstanding in the criminal complaint filed with Paris prosecutors, including these: Where will these regime officials be tried, and to what will they be sentenced if found guilty? France’s legal system is not recognized by the hardline Shia regime, which is subject to the Sharia. So is this criminal complaint nothing more than an empty, symbolic gesture? Iran Wire states that the complaint is indeed “largely symbolic,” and “marks the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, which triggered months of protests across Iran.” Still, even a symbolic gesture is preferable to appeasement.
“Iran Revolutionary Guards chief targeted in French criminal complaint,” France 24, September 14, 2023:
Paris (AFP) – The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, is one of three senior officials targeted in a rare criminal complaint filed with Paris prosecutors Thursday.
Along with Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib and Al-Quds force chief Esmail Qaani, Salami is accused of “death threats and justifying terrorism,” a lawyer for the six Iranian and Franco-Iranian plaintiffs said.
Their case refers to public threats issued by the three men between December 2022 and January 2023 against people backing the nationwide protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating Iran’s female dress code.
Khatib said on December 13 last year that “anyone playing a role in the riots will be punished, wherever they are in the world”.
The declaration was spread widely in the press and on social media, according to the text of the criminal complaint seen by AFP.
Meanwhile, Salami himself said on January 10 that “the French people and the managers of (satirical anti-clerical magazine) Charlie Hebo” should not “concern themselves with the fate of Salman Rushdie”.
The British author has long been subject to a fatwa calling for his killing issued by Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and was gravely wounded in an August 2022 knife attack. Charlie Hebdo staff were massacred by jihadist gunmen in 2015 after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed….
Westman says
As we’ve observed, any national court depends on having the suspect in custody and the world’s criminal courts depend on the prosecutors being the victors of a war. Otherwise it’s just political posturing.
Rushdie certainly has paid a high price for truth and freedom of speech, yet he might not be our best reference for the West.
Salman Rushdie: ‘Make America great again.’ That’s always made me want to ask: ‘When exactly was that?’ What is the date to which we are looking backwards? Was it, for example, when there was slavery? Was it before women had the right to vote? Was it before the civil rights movement? Exactly which is the American greatness to which we must return?”
On Britain: “And the thing about the golden age is that it never existed, and the myth of the golden age is always used to justify actions in the present. In England, the Brexit catastrophe was the result of another golden age myth, which is: ‘England used to be this glorious country and it could be that glorious country again, if only we could get rid of all these foreigners. Of course they neglected to mention to the electorate that the reason England was so prosperous was that it had spent 200 years plundering the rest of the world.”
Violet says
Great ?… When we had the sense not to want to trash our western values & culture. One of the numerous & extraordinary parts of our culture is that when we’re on the wrong path we self correct; you don’t see that in other cultures. Our foundations based on Christian values put an end to slavery, sati, child sacrifice, child marriage, etc.. We didn’t do this ourselves, we are the lucky recipients of our forefathers Christian values and I pray we cherish that.
Great when the majority especially those in power realized that our values made for a better world everywhere. Our free market system, for example, pulled more people around the world out of poverty than at any time in history. Slavery was ended in the western world beginning in England…Oh how the African kings and leaders fought that. And the Muslims fought against the end of slavery . They thought we were perposterous. Our Christian foundations had us fight when needed to end slavery.
Gurek says
How Western media refers to the mass-murdering and child rapist evil “prophet” muhammad is beyond measure! He can be the prophet of France24 but the civilized people all around the world will always denounce islam and it’s crappy prophet who continues to destroy lives today.
Violet says
Fixing the problem they created themselves when they opened the borders to mass numbers of people..And…they keep voting for the same politicians with the open border globalist agenda….Too bad the rest of the morons in western countries don’t wake up, close borders & begin deporting all those who came illegally or who are trrouble makers.