Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi says he has always protected and will protect human rights amid allegations about mass executions, RIA Novosti reported.

Some human rights activists accuse Raisi of ordering the disappearance and mass execution of thousands of prisoners in Iranian prisons in 1988.

Raisi has also promised to do everything possible to protect human rights.

“Everything I’ve done in my time of holding office has been to defend human rights,” Raisi said.