Iran’s Presidential Election Incentivizes Activity by Foreign Influence Networks

Many Iranians have joined the leading opposition movement, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq to endorse the boycott of the polls on the understanding that the faux democratic process is little more than a pretense for the regime to appoint the candidate favored by the supreme leader.

Ebrahim Raisi is especially infamous for his role in the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Raisi was serving as Tehran’s deputy public prosecutor when the regime’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for the deaths of all the members and supporters of the MEK in prison. Raisi was soon appointed to serve as one of five figures in the Tehran “death commission” which oversaw the interrogation and execution of political prisoners in the nation’s capital.

Efforts to expose Raisi’s role in the massacre are inextricably linked to activism targeting Iran’s influence networks and disinformation campaigns that are forever pushing back against increasing public awareness about the massacre itself.