74th Session of Hamid Noori Court: Witness States Defendant is ‘Exactly Him’
The 74th session of the trial of Hamid Noori, accused of participating in the execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 at Gohardasht Prison, was held on Tuesday, March 16, 2022, with the testimony of Nader Haddadi Moghaddam in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam was arrested in early May 1985 for his membership in the Minority Branch of the Organization of Fedayeen of the Iranian People, along with Mahmoud Mahmoudi. The witness was transferred to a joint committee or “three thousand” and spent two months in the initial interrogation phase there. The witness was then transferred to Evin Prison and spent five months in solitary confinement.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam was later sentenced to ten years in prison. He was transferred from Evin Prison to Gohardasht Prison in February 1988. At the time of the executions, he was held in Ward 14 of Gohardasht Prison with 74 to 76 people who mostly had sentences of 10 to 15 years. The witness’s observations of the execution days trace back to July 28 and hearing Friday prayer sermons from Tehran broadcast by Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Friday Imam of Tehran.
The witness said that prisoners, upon hearing Rafsanjani’s harsh remarks about the armed operations carried out by the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization in western parts of the country and harsh slogans such as “armed hypocrite, imprisoned hypocrite must be executed” by Friday prayer participants, were shocked and realized that conditions in the prison were beginning to change.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam said that the distribution of newspapers in the prison was cut off and news of the “execution” or “dispatch” of two hundred Evin prisoners spread among the prisoners—mostly through Morse code. The serious news of “the presence of a delegation consisting of mullahs and news of executions” on the eighth of September was heard through prisoners they trusted. Prisoners were taken from neighboring wards for execution.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam said that, as he had also stated during police interrogations, he knew Abbasi in the prison as a judge or deputy judge. The defense counsel for the defendant questioned this statement from the witness. Noori’s lawyer claimed that in the text of interrogation with Swedish police, the witness had nowhere referred to the defendant’s role as a judge or deputy judge. The witness rejected this claim and, while explaining his interrogation, emphasized that his statements in interrogation and testimony are the same. It should be noted that the prosecutor had previously read a short section of the witness’s interrogations by Swedish police in the courtroom.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam testified that Naserian, Lashkari, and Abbasi, along with a number of Revolutionary Guards, entered their ward on September 9, 1988, and later took them blindfolded toward the visitation room on the ground floor of Gohardasht Prison. The witness faced a death panel consisting of Eshragh, Niri, and Pourmohammadi on that day. Through the intervention and insistence of Eshragh that his parents were Muslims and that he himself would pray, the witness was saved from execution.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam testified that after leaving the death panel room, the witness saw the comings and goings of the Revolutionary Guards and the division of prisoners. He said that prisoners, after leaving the death panel room, were divided and directed to the left or right side of the hall.
After the executions, Nader Haddadi Moghaddam, along with other surviving prisoners, filled out forms and stood blindfolded in front of a person. Prisoners later told him that this person was “Abbasi” (Hamid Noori). After the executions, Nader Haddadi Moghaddam was transferred to Evin Prison and was released in March 1989 along with another group of prisoners.
When asked by the defendant’s defense counsel in court today whether any interview was conducted with him before his release, Nader Haddadi Moghaddam answered in the negative. Nader Haddadi Moghaddam has had a very active role for years in documenting events and executions of the 1980s. Since 2018, he has been collaborating on the “Prison Conversations” project. He has participated in numerous conferences about prison events, given many lectures, and written articles. When the lawyer asked whether the witness had mentioned the name of his client, Hamid Noori, in all these years, the witness answered that he could not remember. Mahmoud Khalili and Mohammad Yazdajo, two other witnesses in this trial, also collaborate on the “Prison Conversations” project. They are also among the surviving prisoners from the summer 1988 executions at Gohardasht Prison.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam provided documents, including the “Black Book,” to Swedish police during interrogation. This book is one of the written documents in the prosecutor’s indictment in the Hamid Noori case. The witness collaborated in compiling this book.
Nader Haddadi Moghaddam testified that upon seeing a photo of the defendant and hearing the news of his arrest, he identified him. He said he also recognized him as soon as he entered the courtroom. The witness said: “He is exactly him.”
The next court session will be held on Thursday, March 18, 2022, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Source: Voice of America
