Iran’s foreign ministry on Friday criticized the acquittal of George Zimmerman and chastised the United States for widespread "racial discrimination."
"The acquittal of the murderer of the teenage African American once again clearly demonstrated the unwritten, but systematic racial discrimination against racial, religious, and ethnic minorities in the US society," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying by Iran’s state run Fars News Agency.
"The court ruling has also seriously put under question the fairness of the judicial process in the United States," Fars reported Araqchi as saying.
Iranian officials said that Zimmerman’s trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin should have been conducted in a more "accurate and fair" manner.
"Several months on since a probe was launched [into the murder], the public opinion in the U.S. and across the world expect transparency, an accurate and fair judicial investigation into the case, with due regard to human rights principles for American citizens and a ban on discrimination against minorities in the country," Araqchi said.
Fars reported that the Iranian "public views the court ruling as a follow-up to similar incidents such as the suspicious murder of the grandson of former African American Muslim leader Malcolm X, which the U.S. judicial system failed to probe," according to the report.
Iran’s calls for justice came as a surprise to U.S. observers, who pointed out that the Iranian regime is notorious for beating opposition members, arresting journalists, stoning women to death, and publicly executing homosexual teenagers.
An Iranian woman, for instance, was ordered to be stoned to death in July 2010.
The regime also initiated a widespread crackdown on opposition forces in the lead up to its most recent elections, which international observers cited for being neither free nor fair.
Political prisoners in Iran have even attempted to commit suicide as a result of their abusive treatment.
Religious minorities, such as Christians and Jews, also have been arrested or worse.
As an Islamic state that operates under strict Sharia law, Iran has been known to engage in the cruel punishment of criminals.
Some have had arms or legs amputated for petty crimes, while other have been stoned to death.
Iran also leads the world in child executions, according to Amnesty International, which published a report entitled, "Iran: The Last Executioner of Children."
Iran has also arrested children and imprisoned them until they turn 18, at which point them are killed, according to Amnesty. Iran killed eight children in 2005.
Former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin called Iran’s criticism of the Zimmerman trial ridiculous.
"You’ve got to have some sympathy for the poor Foreign Ministry spokesman," Runin said. "This is probably the first time he had to wait for a verdict before writing his statement which is why it took him almost a week to issue it."
"Now that the Zimmerman verdict condemnation is out of the way, though, maybe [Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister] Seyed Abbas Araqchi can start penning his condemnations of all the verdicts issued by Iranian kangaroo courts for such troubling crimes as free speech, free association, and free practice of religion," Rubin said.