Call on the U.S. Department of Justice to Arrest and Keep Masoud Pezeshkian and Abbas Araghchi Out of the United States

We call on the U.S. Department of Justice and other appropriate U.S. authorities to prevent Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from entering the United States and to arrest them if lawful grounds exist.

A United Nations fact-finding mission has reported reasonable grounds to believe that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during the crackdown on nationwide protests, including unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.

Pezeshkian and Araghchi are reportedly due to travel to the United States for the United Nations General Assembly. Their presence in the United States should not provide immunity, safe haven, or an opportunity to evade accountability for serious human-rights violations.

We therefore ask the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the FBI, and other appropriate U.S. authorities to:

• Prevent Masoud Pezeshkian and Abbas Araghchi from entering the United States, using all lawful immigration, national-security, and other available authorities.

• Review available evidence concerning their individual roles and potential responsibility for crimes committed by Iranian authorities.

• Arrest and detain either individual if U.S. law provides lawful grounds for doing so.

• Investigate potential human-rights violations, war crimes, terrorism-related offenses, or other federal crimes within U.S. jurisdiction.

• Seek appropriate criminal charges, extradition, removal, exclusion, sanctions, or other lawful measures supported by the evidence and applicable law.

• Ensure that diplomatic status or participation in the United Nations General Assembly is not treated as an automatic shield from lawful investigation or enforcement.

This petition does not ask the public to determine guilt. It asks U.S. authorities to keep these individuals out of the United States and, if lawful grounds exist, arrest and prosecute them through the proper legal process.

If you believe alleged perpetrators of serious human-rights violations should not be welcomed into the United States, please sign and share this petition.