The United States leveled visa restrictions against 14 Iranian nationals who were allegedly involved in the 1990 assassination of a prominent Iranian dissident in Switzerland.
The announcement came on Friday, which coincides with the United Nations’s Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. The move denies the 14 individuals — only one of whom, Hojatollah Khodaei Souri, was named in the announcement — entrance into the U.S. The ban also includes their immediate family members.
“These actions send a message of support to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s many victims worldwide that we will promote accountability for those who spread terror and violence. The United States will continue to pressure Iran to treat its own people with dignity and respect. Iran conducts assassinations and terrorism abroad to spread its reign of terror well beyond its own borders,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement about the restrictions.
The incident in question was the 1990 assassination of Kazem Rajavi, Iran’s first ambassador to the United Nations Office at Geneva following the 1979 revolution. He served in the role for less than a year, resigning in protest against the new Iranian regime led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Rajavi was involved with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is led in name by his older brother and sister-in-law, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, although Massoud Rajavi disappeared in 2003 and has not been seen publicly since. NCRI is a leading opposition group that enjoys the support of some prominent U.S. political figures, both Republicans and Democrats, and has worked for decades to urge regime change in Iran.
Kazem Rajavi was shot multiple times in a posh suburb outside of Geneva in April 1990. According to reports, Rajavi was on his way back home from a trip to the bank when two cars blocked the road and at least three gunmen got out and opened fire.
Swiss authorities had been investigating the 13 Iranian suspects who are believed to have killed Rajavi up until 2020, when they dropped the investigation, citing the country’s statute of limitations.
Maryam Rajavi praised the U.S.’s move to restrict the visas of the suspects, according to a statement provided to the Washington Examiner by the NCRI Friday afternoon.
“The prosecution, punishment and designation of the assassins of Dr. Rajavi, killed in 1990 near Geneva, and the Iranian regime’s terrorists and leaders have been delayed by the European countries for many years, only emboldening the regime in shedding blood and engaging in terrorism in Europe, NCRI President-elect underscored,” the statement said.
The State Department said that Souri, the one individual named in the announcement, oversaw Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. The U.S. said that Souri “oversaw an institution synonymous with torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”
The announcements come as tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to escalate. The U.S. started the process of instituting a “snapback” of U.N. sanctions against Iran, a move that will intensify the diplomatic row between the two countries. Iran also unveiled two missiles Thursday, one of which was named after Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, whom the U.S. killed in a Baghdad drone strike earlier in 2020.
