Bagheri Kani, Ali
Deputy foreign minister for political affairs, 2021–present. Former secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights and vice president for international affairs of the Judiciary (2019–21). The Council is part of Iran's Judiciary, which is notorious for political prosecutions and systematically violating the human rights of the accused. The Iranian regime uses the Council to defend itself against international criticism for human rights abuses. Indeed, the Council's website lists the first of the body's main duties as "Supervising and maintaining the Islamic Republic’s human rights positions on the international scene and countering attacks levelled [against Iran]".1
Bagheri Kani, as the Council's secretary, "call[ed] for an end to the position of the [United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran] and asserted that the country’s criteria for human rights was different because of the 'religious lifestyle' of its citizens".2 As the Council's secretary and as deputy foreign minister, he has attempted to deflect criticism of Iran for its human rights abuses.3
Bagheri Kani also served as deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) from 2007 to 2013. The National Domestic Security Council (NDSC), which executes crackdowns on protests—including those after the 2009 presidential election, during Bagheri Kani's term as SNSC deputy secretary—is a subunit of the SNSC.4
Sources:
1. https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3878
2. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/313615_IRAN-2021-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf
3. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/19/iran-slams-un-human-rights-resolution-on-anniversary-of-protests, https://www.ilna.ir/Section-politics-3/1291450-foreign-ministry-summons-german-amb-over-meddlesome-stance-on-iran-riots, https://bit.ly/3NRFm2H;
4. https://en.mehrnews.com/news/153852/Ali-Bagheri-Kani-appointed-as-new-head-of-High-Council-for-Human