Iranian Exiles Protest, Demand Raisi’s Prosecution

Iran's President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran June 21, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran's President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran June 21, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Iranian Exiles Protest, Demand Raisi’s Prosecution

Iran's President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran June 21, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran's President-elect Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran June 21, 2021. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Supporters of Iran's exiled opposition rallied in Berlin and elsewhere on Saturday to demand the prosecution of newly elected president Ebrahim Raisi whom they accuse of crimes against humanity.

Flag-waving demonstrators rallied at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and other locations as part of a Free Iran World Summit that featured speeches by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, Reuters reported.

In a keynote address, Maryam Rajavi, president elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, accused Raisi of being the "henchman" responsible for the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said Raisi's election was a blow for human rights and called for him to be investigated over his role in what they and Washington have called the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners.

In an online address, Pompeo described the Iranian presidential election as "in fact, a boycott and the regime knows it". "This is a show laid bare for the entire world to see," Pompeo said.

Pompeo denounced Raisi as a leader who had been hand-picked by Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei to "inflict pain, frighten, continue to loot, and to plunder".



Italian Prime Minister Meloni Meets with Trump at His Florida Resort

A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
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Italian Prime Minister Meloni Meets with Trump at His Florida Resort

A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni flew to Florida to meet with President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, as the key European leader sought to buttress ties with Trump before his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Members of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort welcomed Meloni with applause after an introduction by the president-elect, according to videos shared on social media by reporters and others.

Her trip comes days before she is to meet US President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan. 12. Trump defeated Biden in the November election and is preparing to return to the White House.

While no details of their meeting have been disclosed, Meloni had planned to talk with Trump about Russia's war in Ukraine, trade issues, the Middle East and the plight of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran, according to Italian media reports.

Meloni's office declined to comment on the reports.

She is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials and the stability of the right-wing coalition she heads in Italy. She has also forged a close relationship with billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help him win the election.

"This is very exciting. I'm here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy," Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd, according to a media pool report. "She’s really taken Europe by storm."

Trump and Meloni then sat down for a screening of a documentary questioning the criminal investigations and legal scrutiny faced by John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was central to Trump's unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

One of the biggest challenges facing Meloni is the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Iran on Dec. 19.

Sala was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan's Malpensa airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2023 attack that killed three US service members near the Syrian-Jordanian border. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.

On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry summoned Italy's ambassador over Abedini's detention, Iranian state media reported.

Meloni became the latest in the handful of foreign leaders who have visited Trump in Florida since the Nov. 5 election. He has met with Argentinian President Javier Milei, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.