Iranian Diaspora Stage Boycott Protest on Election Day

“The authorities of Dizel Abad prison in Kermanshah province have cut off Reza Rasaei's contact with his family and have not given any explanation about the reason for these restrictions,” a source close to the case told Dadban.

The group also reported intensified pressure on Rasaei's family, with increased threats of arrest being made against them.

Last year, the death sentence of Rasaei, one of the detainees from the 2022 nationwide protests, was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Iran.

Rasaei, from the marginalized Kurdish and Yarsan minorities, was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court on charges related to the killing of Nader Beirami, head of the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization in Sanandaj, during a clash between security and law enforcement forces and protesters.

Various human rights organizations, including Dadban and Hengaw, reported that the authorities attributed Beirami’s murder to Rasaei without providing any evidence, witnesses, or documents.

Amnesty International, also, issued a warning about Rasaei's trial, noting that he was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including electric shocks and severe beatings, to compel self-incriminating “confessions.”

Known as the Baqiatallah Headquarters, this apparatus works closely with the Intelligence Ministry to strategically influence the current snap election to replace former President Ebrahim Raisi, the NGO reports.

UANI says its report marks the first clear exposure of these methods of electoral manipulation.

Titled “Engineering Minds and Votes,” the 34-page report is based on original material from inside the IRGC's Baqiatallah Headquarters, including lectures, textbooks, written presentations, and speeches.

Kasra Aarabi, one of the study's authors, notes that the group was established in 2019 with the explicit objective of realizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s vision of an "ideal Islamic government and society."

The group, connected to the Office of the Supreme Leader, leads an initiative as part of Khamenei’s broader five-stage doctrine to achieve this goal.

That reportedly involves a five-year plan aimed at creating a regime-led "insider civil society" by recruiting and training four million Iranians across 800,000 groups, designed to influence and control the population.

The report also reveals that the Baqiatallah Headquarters is connected to the Office of the Supreme Leader and leverages resources from other agencies to execute its comprehensive "Middle Ring" strategy.

The five-year plan aims to create a regime-led "insider civil society" by recruiting and training four million Iranians across 800,000 groups, designed to influence and control the population to achieve Khamenei’s doctrine.

While election rigging in the Islamic Republic is not new, most famously in 2009, Aarabi says that the IRGC’s Baqiatallah Headquarters has reached "unprecedented levels of electoral rigging" in recent years.

Using tactics such as election engineering and cultural manipulation to secure the regime’s preferred outcomes and suppress opposition, the shadowy group has reportedly been instrumental in executing Khamenei’s vision. Traditionally, the members of the Guardian Council, selected by the Supreme Leader, are in charge of candidate eligibility.

UANI’s analysis, however, shows that the Baqiatallah Headquarters is now a key player in controlling narratives, vetting candidates, intimidating voters, and manipulating vote counts.

Affiliates of the covert group take on roles in election monitoring and polling stations to directly influence outcomes.

Operating at a granular level, the Baqiatallah Headquarters plays a critical role in vetting candidates.

Agents gather detailed intelligence on potential candidates, file reports to the IRGC intelligence, which processes and shares the data with the Guardian Council for final candidate eligibility decisions.

The Headquarters also reportedly runs targeted smear campaigns against candidates not aligned with Khamenei's preferences, ensuring only loyal candidates are elected.

Additionally, it supports IRGC’s cyberspace operations, including trolling social media, spreading misinformation, creating divisions among opposition groups, and trending pro-regime hashtags.

During the March 2024 parliamentary vote, former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was recorded implicating Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Baqiatallah Headquarters, in orchestrating election engineering.

Zarif disclosed that Jafari was "behind everything," including preparing the entire candidate list for the parliamentary elections.

The report calls for the US and its allies to immediately sanction the Baqiatallah Headquarters, its leadership, affiliates and apparatus.

Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made the announcement, proscribing the IRGC as a terror organization on June 19 at a news conference in Ottawa. Before the official announcement, CBC News and Iran International English were the first outlets to break the news. 

"The government leaked that listing, and that's not usually how something as serious as this takes place," Lantsman told Iran International’s ‘Eye for Iran’ Podcast.

Lantsman stated that while she does not attribute malicious intent to the federal government for the leak, it may have given individuals with ties to the IRGC time to relocate their money or assets within Canada.

The parliamentarian, whose party has been pressuring the federal government to list the IRGC, admitted that she does not know when the government began taking action or notifying banks.

Iran International sought an interview and a response to the allegations from Canada’s Public Safety Minister for the 'Eye for Iran' podcast but received no reply in time for publication.

In a previous email correspondence, a Public Safety spokesperson told Iran International that adding an entity to the terrorist list results in “significant and immediate consequences for the entity and those associated with the entity.” 

“Canadian financial institutions, such as banks and brokerages, must immediately freeze the entity’s assets, which can then be the subject of seizure, restraint or forfeiture," the spokesperson said. 

Lantsman said “You know when you give somebody a heads up of a decision you know, it allows things to move around. Frankly the government is sloppy on this, just as they've been sloppy on foreign interference, and more than sloppy, but outright dangerous.”

When asked by Iran International’s Negar Mojtahedi during 'Eye for Iran,' whether this points to potential foreign interference within the government itself, Lantsman responded that she does not have the intelligence to suggest that, but that it’s not usual to “see something written in the newspapers before you hear it from a minister's mouth. It's usually the other way around. It should be the other way around. Canadians should expect that it's the other way around.” 

The designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group has long been sought by Iranian-Canadians and the relatives of those killed when the IRGC shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 with two surface-to-air missiles on January 8, 2020. 

The downing killed all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents of Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resisted calls to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, despite his party's support for a motion to list it in 2018.

Trudeau previously cited several concerns, including the unintended consequences such a designation could have for individuals conscripted into the group. 

In an email, a Public Safety spokesperson told Iran International that “being listed as a terrorist entity does not constitute a criminal offense, however it can lead to other criminal consequences.” 

The RCMP does not investigate movements or organizations for their ideological dispositions but rather for their criminal activities, the statement said. 

The listing of the IRGC as a terrorist entity, the Public Safety spokesperson wrote, identifies individuals who have engaged in or played a “substantial role in terrorism and acts of violence.” Doing so allows the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to prevent these individuals from obtaining a visa, entering, or remaining in Canada.

You can watch the full podcast with Minister Melissa Lantsman on Iran International YouTube Page.

Kanaani expressed his disapproval on Friday, stating, "The meddling statements from the US regarding our presidential elections are a blatant and outrageous intrusion."

US acting special envoy for Iran, Abram Paley asserted on Wednesday through his social media account that there is "no expectation of free and fair elections or fundamental change in Iran’s direction."

Kanaani went on to say, "The US authorities persist with such baseless remarks, but the Iranian people will respond vigorously with their active and enthusiastic participation at the polls, as they have done historically."

Paley highlighted that the Guardian Council hand-picks the six candidates and noted severe limitations on Iranian voters' access to "even the most basic freedoms; necessary features of any democracy."

"In the face of the authoritarian regime’s long history of harassing and intimidating journalists, suppressing election coverage, and denying freedom of peaceful of assembly, we support the Iranian people," he said.

In a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Kristerson, they warned that such agreements encourage the Islamic Republic to hold foreign citizens and dual nationals hostage.

Signatories include the Pro-Republic Iranian Society in Sweden, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran-Austria, the Republican Iranians of Australia, and the Khavaran Justice Seekers, which represents families of thousands of prisoners killed in Iran in 1988.

The letter, published on Friday, emphasized that releasing Nouri has “severely damaged the Swedish government's reputation.”

Earlier this month, Sweden repatriated Nouri and secured the release of two Swedish citizens, Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi, who had been detained in Iran on allegations of "spying for Israel." However, the deal did not include Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian currently on death row, who has been on a hunger strike since June 26 to protest being excluded from the exchange.

Sweden’s Prime Minister expressed regret that Iran was unwilling to negotiate for Djalali’s release, acknowledging the dire situation of the hunger-striking prisoner. He also cautioned citizens against travel to Iran.

Amnesty International condemned Nouri's release, calling it a “stunning blow to survivors and relatives of victims” of the 1988 prison massacre in Iran.

Nouri had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Swedish court in 2022 for crimes against humanity related to his involvement in the mass executions of prisoners in the 1988.

His arrest in Sweden was based on the principle of universal justice, and his trial and conviction were hailed as significant steps for international justice. However, his release has faced widespread condemnation.