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A collective of victims of the state-led response amid the 2022 demonstrations for "Women, Life, Freedom" has launched a landmark criminal complaint naming forty specified Iranian officials of purported crimes against humanity.

Legal Action Launched in the Argentinian System

The petition for a judicial probe to be opened was filed within the Argentinian legal system. This action was taken by a group of Iranians aided by a non-profit advocacy organization. The Argentinian courts are particularly open to accepting universal jurisdiction claims.

The document asserts that the response from state security apparatus to the unrest involved "discharging lethal rounds, paintball guns, steel shot improperly used for close-range use, and various objects at demonstrators." The case further states mass arrests, abuse while imprisoned, and killings of protesters that allegedly persist to this day.

Officials Named Anonymously

Named individuals across the various branches of Iran's security services have been listed in the legal documents, but their names are currently being kept confidential.

Individual Accounts Drive the Case

One of the litigants, based in Britain Mahsa Piraei, commented that the objective "is not personal vengeance in a private capacity, but justice and transparency." Her parent, Minoo Majidi, 62 years old, was killed by gunfire in the autumn of 2022. Medical examinations showed more than 167 steel projectiles had been discharged into her posterior at near-contact distance. She had been on a gathering over the killing of Mahsa Amini, a youthful Kurdish woman who was killed after arrest.

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

Piraei stated: "Via official complaints and documentation the intention is to safeguard proof, catalogue violations and avoid historical oblivion." She said her loss as "part of a pattern but part of a common procedure."

Additional Complainants Are Those Shot in the Eye

The remaining complainants who are named are Kowsar Eftekhari and Mersedeh Shahinkar, both victims of blinding at close range by marker guns.

Eftekhari, a 23-year-old scholar, was shot in the eye in autumn 2022. She had been protesting for weeks, seeing fellow demonstrators being shot with lethal fire and being struck herself with shock weapons. During a protest on 12 October, she was at a demonstration near a university when a individual fired at her with numerous paintballs from a range of about a yard. He then is said to have fired at her eye when she did not respond to his demand to scatter. A video of the incident with blood pouring from her face circulated widely, and she was subsequently granted asylum in Germany.

Shahinkar, in her late thirties when injured on October 18th, only realized what had happened when she noticed something warm on her face. Fellow protesters cautioned her not to get into an emergency vehicle for fear of being delivered to a authority holding area. When she later reached a health center, a staff member ordered her to go away because they would not treat protesters. A doctor assessed her and directed her to a hospital, where Shahinkar pretended a object had unintentionally hurt her eye so she would not be turned away. She shared images of her condition online, and in January 2023, undercover agents approached her, causing her to flee Iran. She later received a prestigious international award as a figure of the movement.

Global Legal Concept Offers Foundation for Case

The individuals seeking the legal probe say that the complaint is not considered just as a paper exercise with little chance of a practical outcome. The concept permits cases to be examined in a different state even if the offence did not take place in that nation and the offender is not present there. The Argentinian system has some of the most liberal laws on such claims in the world.

The concept of international justice has historically resulted in dozens of sentences and the opening of cases covering offenses perpetrated in dozens of nations. Legal actions are currently being pursued in several jurisdictions.

As the application is exclusively for a legal inquiry, and this is not a case for damages, there is no demand by the litigants for monetary compensation. This case would not constitute the initial legal action against Iranian figures initiated in Argentina.