Nowhere is Safe: New Map Exposes Reach of Iran’s Global Assassination and Hostage-Taking Program
December 19, 2024
ABC today launched an interactive map that visualizes decades of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and death threats.
Nowhere is Safe: New Map Exposes Reach of Iran’s Global Assassination and Hostage-Taking Program
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center launches interactive mapping project unearthing 45 years of State-sponsored violence by the Islamic Republic of Iran within its borders and around the world.
Countries impacted by the Regime’s killing and kidnapping program outside of Iran include the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Germany.
Prominent targets include Donald J. Trump, Masih Alinejad, Mike Pompeo, and nearly 1,000 other documented cases since 1979
Washington, DC – The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) for Human Rights in Iran today launched "Iran: State Violence Beyond Borders," an interactive mapping project that visualizes more than four decades of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and death threats attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. This groundbreaking tool, which is available to the public, sheds light on the systematic use of transnational violence by Iranian authorities to silence dissent both inside and outside of the country. The map reveals the chilling reality that from the Middle East to North America to South Africa, no region or nation is safe from the long arm of Iran’s state-sponsored violence. It highlights not only the scale of these operations but also the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, often facilitated by the reluctance or failure of host countries to act decisively due to political, economic, or national security considerations.
ABC’s new data mapping tool documents 861 cases of extrajudicial executions and 124 instances of death threats or attempted kidnappings and assassinations over 45 years. Through detailed visualization, this project aims to advocate for victims' rights to truth and accountability, highlighting the frequency, scope, and geographical extent of these crimes. The map also provides insights into the failed assassination and kidnapping attempts, as well as the death threats that often precede these acts of violence.
Since February 1979, agents and proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran have kidnapped, disappeared, and extrajudicially executed a significant number of individuals whose activities and influence they deemed undesirable. The involvement of Iran’s authorities, diplomats, and security forces in ordering, planning, and carrying out or providing logistics for these crimes has been laid bare, and sometimes acknowledged by Iranian officials, in multiple cases. However, in the absence of transparency, systematic official investigations, and independent field research, the actual number of victims remains unknown, with at least 452 cases documented outside Iran alone.
"This interactive map represents a critical tool to advance efforts to document and expose incidents of extrajudicial violence carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran," said Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran. "We hope this project moves the international community to systematically monitor and investigate these violations, prioritizing transparency and justice for the victims who have been left in the dark for far too long."
"The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center's map demonstrates, for the first time, the extent of Iran's global assassinations, kidnapping, and hostage-taking,” said Anne Applebaum, a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. "The Iranian regime has turned the world into a chessboard for its own deadly game, the silencing of dissent."
"The alarming global scope of Iran's extrajudicial activities challenge the very foundations of liberal democracy and human rights around the world," said Dr. Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). "By documenting these acts of violence from the United States to Germany, the map not only serves as a tool for accountability but also as a critical reminder of how state power can be misused to stifle dissent far beyond its borders. It underscores the urgent need for a unified international response to safeguard individual liberties and uphold the rule of law against such authoritarian overreach."
"This project brings to light the extent of the Islamic Republic regime’s use of violence against civilians in Iran and its violations of fundamental human rights – including the right to life," said Nazanin Boniadi, actress and human rights advocate. "The perpetrators behind these crimes cannot be allowed to continue to benefit from impunity, and governments and international institutions must urgently ensure effective remedy and reparation to victims."
"Access to relevant and accurate information is essential to ensuring accountability and upholding the rule of law and non-repetition," said Bill Shipsey, lawyer and founder of Art for Human Rights (formerly Art for Amnesty). "This initiative will advance efforts to dismantle the pervasive culture of impunity that has silenced victims and robbed them of their right to life and justice."
Prominent cases in the United States highlighted by the map include that of Masih Alinejad, a US-based Iranian journalist and women’s rights campaigner who has led online campaigns against the mandatory hijab in Iran since 2014. Alinejad has been the target of multiple kidnapping and assassination plots orchestrated by agents of the Islamic Republic between 2021 and 2022. Another case involves Michael Pompeo, the US Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021, who was instrumental in the US maximum pressure campaign on Iran. The US Justice Department indicted Shahram Poursafi, a member of the IRGC Qods Force Unit 840, for attempted murder of Pompeo and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Similarly, US President Donald J. Trump has been reportedly targeted for retribution by the Islamic Republic over the death of IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, with threats and alleged assassination plots against him since 2020.
In Iran, the perpetrators behind these and hundreds of other cases of extrajudicial executions and attempted killings have benefited from impunity and calls for truth and justice have often been punished. The states on whose territory these crimes were committed have too often failed their duty to protect victims’ right to life and justice. They have denied victims and the public access to relevant and accurate information, a prerequisite for ensuring meaningful accountability and essential to the rule of law and non-repetition.
In many cases, invoking national security or perhaps prioritizing political and economic interests, host countries where these cases of extrajudicial violence have taken place have avoided making arrests, allowed arrested suspects – in particular state agents – to leave, granted early releases to those convicted for these crimes, or depoliticized the killings by prosecuting them as ordinary crimes. These policies have strengthened a culture of impunity and opened the way to the repetition of these crimes, making the Iranian government’s sinister warnings to activists, dissidents, journalists, and ordinary citizens all the more effective in silencing dissent.
About the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) for Human Rights in Iran: The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) for Human Rights in Iran is a Washington, DCbased non-profit organization dedicated to promoting human rights and democracy in Iran. Through comprehensive research, documentation, and advocacy, ABC seeks to raise awareness of human rights violations and support victims in their quest for justice and accountability. Founded in memory of Abdorrahman Boroumand, a pro-democracy lawyer assassinated in France in April 1991, the Center strives to honor his legacy by fostering a culture of human rights and the rule of law.
