The Butcher of Tehran is tip of COP26 iceberg
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi is not known as the Butcher of Tehran for nothing.
He has been accused of sending up to 30,000 political opponents to their deaths during a brutal purge in 1988.
Pregnant women and children are reported to have been routinely tortured, shot and hung for little more than opposing the regime.
In the Sunday Mail today, dissident Ahmad Ebrahimi has bravely told how he was blindfolded and beaten for years in the basement of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where he came face to face with Raisi.
He and wife Farzaneh will come to Glasgow this week to demand the President is immediately arrested if he tries to touch down in Scotland for the COP26 summit.
When you consider previous legitimate calls for figures such as boxer Mike Tyson and rapper Eminen to be banned from the UK, it doesn’t appear an unreasonable request.
The problem is that if you start with Raisi, Police Scotland may well end up having to round up a sizeable percentage of the international leaders at the crunch global warming talks.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – who has been linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and presides over a regime which stones women to death – is likely to be on the guest list.
Other tyrants who could show up include Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose administration is believed to have k i l led using the nerve agent novichok on UK soil.
Then you have figures such as Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who aren’t exactly considered squeaky clean when it comes to human rights.
It is little wonder the UN has declared the SEC campus where the talks will be held an international territory operating outwith Scots law.
It is unclear whether Scottish or UK authorities would have the ability to take action against Raisi even if they wanted to.
This is at a conference being billed as a last chance to save humanity from catastrophic climate change.
When you look at some of the world leaders who will be in attendance it’s easy to see why humanity has found itself in such a perilous state in the first place.