Who Allowed Judge Mansouri to Go to Germany?

Representatives of two liberal and green parties are demanding explanation from the German government regarding Gholamreza Mansouri’s residence in Germany. The Foreign Ministry says it did not issue a visa for him. Iranians abroad are calling for Mansouri’s trial in Germany.

The German newspaper “Die Welt” website addressed the controversy over Gholamreza Mansouri’s presence in the country in an article titled: “Germany: Secret Clinic for Mullahs’ Death Judges.” Gholamreza Mansouri is the ninth defendant in a corruption case in the Iranian judiciary and, according to the prosecutor’s representative, fled the country after receiving 500,000 euros in bribes.

Mansouri, who was an investigator in one of the branches of the Culture and Media Prosecutor’s Office and has a record of issuing severe sentences for some media and political activists, claimed on Monday, June 9, by posting a video message that he left the country for medical treatment and was unable to return due to closed borders during the coronavirus pandemic.

Die Welt reported that the manager of a private clinic in Lower Saxony, who reportedly accepted Mansouri, called his admission to the clinic “fake news” and emphasized that he has never accepted anyone named Gholamreza Mansouri, neither in the past nor now. The newspaper did not mention the name of the clinic or its manager.

Iranian domestic media reported that Mansouri was admitted to Professor Samiei’s clinic in Hanover.

The German Foreign Ministry also responded to Die Welt, saying that German diplomatic offices did not issue a visa for Gholamreza Mansouri and that the ministry has no information about his residence.

Mansouri can travel to all Schengen area countries, including Germany, with a Schengen visa. The Iranian Embassy in Berlin refused to provide information about Mansouri. However, the Etemaad newspaper on Tuesday, June 20, reported that Mansouri did not contact the Iranian Embassy in Berlin.

Bijan Djir-Sarayi, representative of Germany’s Free Democratic Party, has asked the German government to clarify Mansouri’s status as soon as possible to determine whether he is illegally present in the country. Bijan Djir-Sarayi emphasized that if Germany has agreed to secretly harbor such a person, how can it claim to support human rights and civil rights.

Omid Nouripour, foreign policy spokesperson for the Green Party, also stressed that it must be clear to the German government that Mansouri is responsible for the detention of numerous journalists and responsible for human rights violations in many cases. He said that for students in Iran who are being persecuted, or for Iranian family members residing in Germany, it is very difficult to see that Gholamreza Mansouri has obtained a German residence visa.

He emphasized that if reports about his residence in Germany are true, “it is a major scandal that the German government should quickly take a position on.”

Lower Saxony state, in response to a request from the Green Party’s parliamentary group, stated that Gholamreza Mansouri had a Schengen visa in the summer two years ago with a short-term 90-day residence in the Schengen area that was issued by the German Embassy in Tehran. Iranians living in Germany say that at that time he was probably undergoing treatment at a specialized neurology clinic in Hanover.

In January 2018, Professor Samiei’s clinic accepted Ayatollah Shahroudi, the former head of Iran’s judiciary. Judge Shahroudi came to Germany for treatment due to a brain tumor. His presence in the country was accompanied by widespread protests from human rights organizations that publicized his past and death sentences, including for the execution of minors under 18. At that time, the German federal prosecutor began investigating the case, but Shahroudi left Germany before the police decided to arrest him.

Iranians abroad are complaining about the presence of another “death judge” in Germany for treatment. Mina Ahadi, political activist and founder and director of the international committee “No to Stoning,” wrote a letter to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and, referring to the trial of a senior officer of the Syrian army in Germany who was responsible for torturing Assad’s opponents, demanded that Gholamreza Mansouri be held accountable in Germany.

In this letter, she wrote: “How is it possible that the commander of a special battalion of the (Assad) army is being tried, but a judge who issued orders for killing, torture, detention of journalists and civil society activists, and murder of opponents of the Iranian regime is accepted with courtesy?”

Iraj Mesdaghi, a human rights activist who played a role in Hamid Nouri’s arrest in Sweden, has published a lawsuit addressed to the German federal prosecutor and the prosecutor of Lower Saxony state and asked Iranians to sign it.

Referring to Gholamreza Mansouri’s statements in a video message on Monday in which he emphasized that he is proud of cooperation with the Islamic Republic, he wrote: “We, the signatories of this lawsuit, ask the judicial authorities of Germany to arrest this person who played an active role in the pursuit, arrest, detention, and torture of Iranian journalists and even takes pride in it, for violating human rights standards. Mansouri’s return to Iran means his escape from the court of justice.”

Source: DW