Lawyers accusing an Iranian deputy minister of crimes against humanity over Tehran's crackdown on protesters in recent years slammed on Monday Switzerland's failure to arrest him while on Swiss soil.
The lawyers had filed a complaint in the Alpine nation against Kazem Gharibabadi on February 23, the day before the vice-foreign minister addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council's conference on nuclear disarmament in Geneva.
Given it was "certain that he had set foot on Swiss soil", the French lawyers representing the complainant, William Bourdon and Philippine Vaganay, asked the authorities to arrest the deputy minister under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
While his visit came on the eve of high-stakes US-Iran talks in Geneva on Tehran's nuclear programme -- which ultimately failed to avert the outbreak of the US-Israel-Iran war -- the lawyers argued that "this context cannot justify the inaction of the public prosecutor's office, which had a duty to arrest him as soon as possible".
The fact that he "was not a member of the negotiating delegation" made that failure to detain him all the more egregious, they argued.
The complaint is linked to Iran's brutal crackdown on the protests that erupted after the 2022 death in custody of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic sharia law.
It was filed on behalf of an Iranian-Swiss citizen who had fled to Switzerland after spending 10 years in Iranian jails as a result of his political activism.
The lawyers charged that Gharibabadi "could be held responsible" for having "participated in and covered up acts of murder, physical and sexual violence, arbitrary detention, inhuman or degrading treatment and violations of fundamental rights" during the crackdown.
Since 2011, Switzerland has recognised the principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity and other serious crimes under international law.
When contacted by AFP on February 26, the Swiss federal public prosecutor's office confirmed receipt of the complaint, arguing that it was "currently being reviewed according to standard procedure".
"Universal jurisdiction is an essential tool in the fight against impunity, but it will be devalued and discredited if it remains a mere formality," the lawyers protested.
