Ahmadinejad submits intl. war crimes bill
Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented a bill to the Majlis on Sunday calling for the investigation of international war crimes.

In January, the cabinet approved the bill calling for the prosecution of individuals charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially against Muslim people, in any part of the world.

According to the bill, massacring people or depriving them of basic necessities and blocking the supply of humanitarian assistance with the aim of exterminating all or part of a population because they practice a particular religion or inhabit a particular region are all considered genocide and those convicted of such offenses will be sentenced to death or receive a prison sentence ranging from 15 years to life.

Displacing people, racism, rape, and other similar inhumane actions perpetrated against a civilian population on a large scale in order to carry out the policies of an organization or a government are deemed to be crimes against humanity and those convicted of such offenses will be sentenced to 10 to 20 years imprisonment, the bill states.

The bill also defines the deliberate murder of people, illegal confiscation of assets, forcing captives to fight against their own country, taking hostages, using toxic weapons, starving civilians, and recruiting children under 15 year olds for military operations as war crimes.

If the bill is approved by the Majlis and the Guardian Council and becomes a law, the Iranian Judiciary will designate some of its courts in Tehran for holding trials

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