In a fresh blow to beleaguered Oberlin College in Ohio, Iranian Noble Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has criticized the liberal arts college for covering up crimes against humanity committed against her Islamic studies professor, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati. .
Fox News Digital obtained the December 12 letter addressed to Oberlin College president Carmen Twillie Ambar.
“The process by which this [Oberlin College] An investigation was carried out, and its bizarre finding that Mr. Mahallati had no knowledge of the killings, leads us to conclude that the investigation was an exercise to cover up a controversy rather than an attempt to get at the truth.” wrote Ebadi, along with the popular author and former English teacher, Azar Nafisi, and Ladan Boroumand, historian and co-founder of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Amnesty International and leading international legal experts determined that Mahallati covered up the mass murder of political prisoners and dissidents by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1988. One estimate is that the clerical regime, including its current president Ebrahim Raisi, executed at least 5,000 innocent Iranian prisoners.
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – AUG 1: Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Mahallati spoke on August 1 in New York after a meeting with UN officials on the implementation of the Security Council resolution to end to the war between Iran and Iraq.
(Photo by Bill Foley/Time & Life Pictures)
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Mahallati served as the Iranian regime’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989.
The authors of the letter requested “that Oberlin authorize a third party to conduct a transparent investigation into the allegations against Mr. Mahallati. The reputation of his university and its commitment to justice and equity depend on Item,” it said.
The letter criticized Oberlin College’s previous investigation into Mahallati as a bogus process that contradicted the university’s values.
“The cumulative weight of evidence is why we were so disappointed to learn that, in addition to hiring Mr. Mahllati and granting him tenure, Oberlin conducted a secret investigation that led to his exoneration totally implausible. To the best of our knowledge, Oberlin did not speak to any experts or victims on this issue in his investigation.”
The authors of the letter wrote to Ambar that: “We have also learned that several hundred families of victims of the massacre of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 drew their attention to the background of Mr. Mahallati in an open letter dated October 2020 and subsequent correspondence, but that you have not taken any credible action in this regard. We are writing to add our voice to theirs, seeking an impartial and independent investigation.”
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Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ruled Iran during the 1988 massacre of opponents of the regime.
(Reuters)
The letter also stated that, “As the United Nations and Amnesty International point out, Mr. Mahallati went to great lengths to deny the killings and present them as foreign propaganda.”
A US State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital about Mahallati that “we are not going to comment on reports of the specific views of a private citizen, but we continue to openly advocate respect for human rights in Iran and around the world and promoting accountability. for violations and abuses of human rights”.
The letter to Oberlin concluded that, “It is our collective opinion of experts that Mr. Mahallati knew, or should have known, about the murders that took place in 1988. Even if he did not know (which is a highly unlikely scenario), a reasonable person in his position would have investigated and learned of the murders. Therefore, Mahallati’s lies to the United Nations about the murders reveal an intent to mislead the world about the murders in an effort to assist in their cover-up.”
Fox News Digital exclusively reported in 2021 that Mahallati called for the destruction of Israel and a global jihad against the Jewish state. Fox News Digital also revealed for the first time that Mahallati has launched a high-intensity campaign at the UN to persecute the peaceful minority religious community, the Bahai, in Iran.
The presence of Nobel peace laureate Ebadi behind the letter will likely increase pressure on the Oberlin College administration to deal with the growing scandal surrounding Mahallati.
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According to the Nobel Prize website, Ebadi won the prize, “for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the fight for the rights of women and children.”
Sources at Oberlin College told Fox News Digital that Mahallati has remained mum about ongoing protests in Iran against the theocratic state over the regime’s alleged killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amini was arrested in September for not wearing her hijab correctly and was tortured in the custody of the regime’s notorious morality police.
In September, Congressional Representatives Jim Banks (R-Indiana) and Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) launched an investigation into Mahallati’s ties to the Iranian regime.
Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American human rights activist who has been leading a grassroots campaign to secure Mahallati’s dismissal as a teacher, told Fox News Digital: “Iran’s Islamic regime has started a new wave of repression and executions. , similar to those of the 1980s, nicknamed the bloody decade. The Islamic Republic of Iran uses the same playbook used by Mahallati to accuse disgruntled citizens of being Mohareb (one who wages war against God).”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was a member of the so-called “death commission” that led to the killing of Iranian opposition figures in 1988.
(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Bazargan, whose brother Bijan was killed during the 1988 massacre, said that “by protecting Mahallati, an apologist for the Islamic regime, Oberlin College is complicit in the oppression of a new generation of Iranians and is responsible for their torture, rape and public abuse”. Oberlin’s message to Iranian officials is that tyranny and injustice have no consequences, and they can reinvent themselves as teachers of peace and friendship.”
Fox News Digital sent multiple print inquiries to the president of Oberlin, Ambar and Mahallati, including voicemail messages. In response to the Fox News report and an article in the student newspaper Oberlin Review, Oberlin College published a fact sheet on the Mahallati case on its website in October 2021.
Mahallati retained a lawyer at the time, saying: “The official positions I formally held at the United Nations during my time in service do not represent my personal views… It is important to note that my accusers have not found a single statement mine that is remotely consistent with the baseless allegations.”
Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard march during a parade to mark the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war.
(Reuters)
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Fox News Digital also contacted the Department of Education for comment.
