Hamid Nouri's court ruling; Iran summons Swedish chargé d'affaires

Following the Stockholm District Court's conviction of Hamid Nouri for crimes related to the 1988 massacre, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday that it had summoned the charge d'affaires of the Swedish embassy.

Hamid Nouri, known as "Hamid Abbasi", the former assistant prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison, was tried for nine months in the Stockholm District Court on two main charges of "international war crimes" and "premeditated murder". He was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In response to this ruling, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the head of the ministry's Third Western Europe Department, while summoning the Swedish Embassy's chargé d'affaires, had conveyed his official protest against the "media statement and the verdict issued by the Stockholm District Court of Sweden against Mr. Hamid Nouri, an Iranian citizen imprisoned in that country."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has called the Stockholm District Court's ruling against Hamid Nouri "illegal and contrary to international law."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has considered the Stockholm court "unqualified" to handle this case and said that holding such a court "violates" the principle of sovereignty and independence of states in international law.

The head of the Third Western European Department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry also told the charge d'affaires of the Swedish embassy that he holds the Swedish government responsible for the consequences of this court's ruling for "relations between the two countries."

The Stockholm District Court has stated in its ruling that Hamid Nouri, as deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, "collaborated with others involved in the executions (in 1988)."

The Stockholm District Court has stated in its ruling that the mass executions of 1988 were a "serious crime against international law."

Hamid Nouri's lawyers have also announced that they will appeal the Stockholm District Court's ruling against their client.

This is the first time that one of the defendants in this case has been tried and convicted after more than three decades of mass executions of political prisoners in Iranian prisons in the summer of 2018.

In the summer of 1988, Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, appointed a four-member committee, the "Death Committee," to investigate the cases of thousands of political and ideological prisoners who were serving their sentences in prisons.

Hossein Ali Nayiri, Morteza Eshraqi, Ebrahim Raisi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi were the four judicial officials and the main figures of this "death commission."

According to a report by Amnesty International, in the summer of 1988, at least 4,482 political prisoners, both men and women, were executed within a two-month period.

In the same year, Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then deputy leader of the Islamic Republic, met with the "death committee" and called their actions "the biggest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic" and these individuals themselves "criminals."

Ebrahim Raisi, whose role in these executions was discussed, especially during the previous two presidential elections in Iran, has also defended these executions.

After winning the presidential election, Mr. Raisi, in his first press conference as president-elect, “proudly” defended his role on the death squad, saying: “If a prosecutor defends people’s rights and the security of society, he should be commended and encouraged.”

Continued reactions to Hamid Nouri's court verdict

In this context, more than 208 civil and political activists announced in a statement that the Stockholm court's verdict in convicting Hamid Nouri is "a historic victory and a new beginning for the rights movement."

The statement reads: "It is hoped that the end of this trial will be a promising beginning for deepening and expanding the lessons that this historic experience has brought to the advocacy movement and human rights struggles."

Tohidi Nayreh, Mihan Jazni, Taghi Rahmani, Shahla Shafiq, Shirin Ebadi, Masih Alinejad, Mehr Anizig Kar, Naser Kakhsaz, Hedayatollah Matin Daftari, and Azar Nafisi are among the signatories of this statement.

Source: Radio Farda