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A coalition of those harmed during the state-led response amid the 2022 demonstrations for "Women, Life, Freedom" has launched a landmark criminal complaint targeting 4 dozen identified Iranian authorities of purported international crimes.

Case Filing Launched in Argentina

The application for a criminal investigation to be commenced was submitted within the Argentinian legal system. This action was undertaken by a group of Iranians with support from a human rights advocacy organization. Argentina's legal framework are noted for hearing international law complaints.

The filing alleges that the actions from Iranian authorities to the protests included "discharging bullets, paintball guns, harmful pellets improperly used for crowd control, and additional ammunition at protesters." The filing further details arbitrary roundups, custodial torture, and killings of participants that are said to persist to this day.

Officials Named Anonymously

Named individuals across the range of Iran's intelligence apparatus have been listed in the filing, but their personal details are currently being kept confidential.

Individual Accounts Drive the Legal Action

One of the individuals behind the case, residing in the United Kingdom Mahsa Piraei, stated that the purpose "is not personal vengeance in a personal sense, but justice and transparency." Her mother, Minoo Majidi, in her sixties, was shot dead in September 2022. Medical examinations showed over 167 steel projectiles had been discharged into her body at point-blank range. She had been participating in a gathering concerning the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who lost her life in custody.

Piraei, a member of Majidi's three children, was residing abroad at the period of her mother's brutal death. She went back to Iran at considerable peril to see the gravesite. Her sister Roya shared a image of herself by their mother's grave with her hair shaved on a restricted social media account. A friend shared the photograph, which went viral, subsequently forcing Roya to flee for Turkey.

Piraei remarked: "Via legal filings and documentation the aim is to maintain records, name crimes and prevent erasure." She said her parent's killing as "part of a pattern but part of a common procedure."

Additional Complainants Include Those Shot in the Eye

The other two complainants who are named are Kowsar Eftekhari and Mersedeh Shahinkar, both survivors of eye injuries at close range by projectile weapons.

Eftekhari, a 23-year-old student, was hit in the eye in October 2022. She had been protesting for an extended period, observing fellow demonstrators being hit by lethal fire and being struck herself with shock weapons. During a demonstration on a day in October, she was at a demonstration near a educational institution when a plainclothes officer struck her with several rounds from a range of about a meter. He then allegedly shot her her eye when she did not obey his demand to leave. A footage of the incident with blood flowing from her face went viral, and she was later given refuge in Germany.

Shahinkar, in her late thirties when attacked on 18 October, only became aware what had happened when she noticed something unusual on her face. Fellow demonstrators warned her not to enter an ambulance for fear of being taken to a police station. When she eventually got to a medical clinic, a worker ordered her to leave because they refused to assist demonstrators. A medical professional assessed her and directed her to a hospital, where Shahinkar said a rock had inadvertently damaged her eye so she would not be denied treatment. She published photos of her condition online, and in January 2023, individuals confronted her, causing her to go into exile. She later was awarded a prestigious recognition as a representative of the campaign.

International Law Principle Creates Avenue for Action

The collective initiating the inquiry assert that the case is not viewed just as a symbolic gesture with little chance of a tangible resolution. The concept allows allegations to be probed in a third country even if the crime did not occur in that jurisdiction and the suspect is not resident there. The Argentinian system has some of the most liberal rules on such matters in the world.

The doctrine of universal jurisdiction has in the past resulted in dozens of convictions and the launch of cases involving crimes perpetrated in numerous countries. Cases are at this time being prosecuted in various jurisdictions.

As the application is exclusively for a criminal investigation, and this is not a case for damages, there is no claim by the litigants for financial restitution. This filing would not represent the initial legal action against Iranian figures brought in Argentina.