Tehran is escalating attacks on dissidents and rights defenders abroad, Canada’s former justice minister Irwin Cotler told local media Tuesday, after revealing he had recently been the target of an alleged Iranian assassination plot.
“We’re talking about a phenomenon of transnational repression and assassination, and Iran has begun to target now in a more intensified way dissidents, human rights defenders, political leaders,” Cotler said in an interview with Canadian broadcaster CTV.
“It’s a phenomenon that represents really a threat to our national security, our national sovereignty, our collective human rights.”
Authorities advised Cotler on October 26 that he faced an imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours by Iranian agents, his organization said Monday.
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, where Cotler is international chair, also confirmed a Globe and Mail report saying authorities had tracked two suspects in the plot.
Tehran denied the allegations, calling them “ridiculous storytelling …