According
to report, Swedish court has sentenced a former Iranian official to life in
prison for his role in a massacre of prisoners in Tehran nearly 35 years ago,
in a case certain to have broad international ramifications.
Hamid
Nouri, a 61-year-old former Iranian judiciary official, has been accused of
participating in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in the
summer of 1988. He was convicted in Stockholm District Court on Thursday on a
charge of crimes against international law following a months-long trial.
“It is a
historic day for me,” Laleh, the brother of a victim, told Swedish public
broadcaster SVT. “I am very happy and grateful. I cannot describe how I feel,
I’m crying. That is the magic of justice today.”
The
conviction and sentencing marks the first time that an Iranian official has
been held accountable for the infamous prisoner massacres, which were ordered
by Iran’s late Supreme Leader and founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who
died the following year.
Many of
those killed had already been sentenced and were serving out their terms. But
Khomeini wanted to empty out the prisons, and commanded that anyone in jail who
refused to renounce their beliefs and embrace the Islamic regime should be put
to death. Thousands were killed. Nouri
was accused of participation of acts of murder, including picking up prisoners,
taking them to mass trials, and escorting them to execution sites.
“Unlike
thousands of political prisoners who were executed without due process based on
their religious and political beliefs in Iran in 1988, Hamid was tried in a
democratic country through a fair and lengthy judicial process that granted him
every avenue to prepare a thorough defence,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of
the Centre for Human Rights in Iran, wrote in a tweet.
Nouri was
arrested while visiting Sweden in 2019 and has repeatedly denied the charges.
Dozens of witnesses, including former prisoners and their relatives, testified
in the trial, held over 96 sessions over nearly a year.
The case
has predictably outraged Tehran.
President
Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline ideologue, was among the judiciary officials who
participated in the 1988 murders and has subsequently said he was proud of his
actions. Tehran is also holding an untold number of dual nationals on specious
charges as de facto hostages, demanding that Nouri and other Iranian regime
figures held in the west be released in exchange.
Iran is
currently holding Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalal, who has been
sentenced to die in an Iranian court on dubious espionage charges after a trial
held largely in secret.
Iran’s
foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani condemned the ruling, which he
described as a scheme cooked up by the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, (MEK) the Iranian
exile organisation whose members were the primary victims of the 1988 slayings.
"We
deeply regret that contrary to the good bilateral ties, Sweden has spent hefty
costs to give in to the evil propaganda machine” of the MEK, he said in
comments carried by the official IRNA, "Sweden has put its judicial system
to the service of the [MEK]’s criminal causes and has practically acquitted
terrorism."
Mr Kanani
warned that the case would damage bilateral ties.
International
human rights advocates hailed the verdict. Amnesty International has long
focused attention on the prison massacres, issuing a major report on the
killings in 2018.
Diana
Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa,
described the verdict as “an unprecedented step towards justice” for the
slayings, and called for more prosecutions of regime officials.
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