49th Hamid Nouri Trial; Witness Says He Was Taken to the Gas Chamber with a Group of Prisoners

The 49th trial session of Hamid Nouri, accused of participating in the execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, was held in Stockholm, Sweden on Tuesday, December 16, with the testimony of Mohammad Khodabandehluei. He is one of the political prisoners who survived those executions in Evin Prison.

Mohammad Khodabandehluei was first arrested at the age of eighteen for supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization. Shahed served his sentence in various prisons from 1982 to 1989. He was transferred to Gohardasht Prison in June 1985.

Khodabandehlui testified that at that time, Mortazavi was the head of Gohardasht Prison, and according to the prisoners' understanding, Lashkari was in charge of the prison's military and security department.

The witness remembers Hamid Nouri in Gohardasht prison from late 1986 or early 1987 onwards. One of the witness’s encounters with Hamid Nouri was in August 1987 – twice in one day – during one of the severe repressions in the gas chamber. Khodabandehluei testified that he was taken to the gas chamber with a group of prisoners who were on a hunger strike. He was beaten by Lashkari, Naserian, Nouri and several other guards inside and outside the gas chamber and lost his right eye.

Mohammad Khodabandehluei testified that on June 11, 1988, he was transferred from Gohardasht Prison to Evin Prison along with more than 150 Mujahideen and two non-Mujahideen prisoners.

The witness said that on August 25 or 26, he was locked in a room in Evin Prison, and the executions began the next day. He was taken to the Evin Prosecutor’s Office on August 28, 2018, and was put in front of the death squad on August 29. The witness was later released from Evin Prison after being acquitted of the People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI) – after fourteen months – at the end of his sentence in August 2019.

The witness announced Wednesday, August 25, as the day the executions began in Evin Prison. He said six people were executed on the first day, only two of whom were sentenced to death.

Khodabandeh Luei testified that he saw Naserian and Nouri in Evin Prison in late August 1988. At that time, only seven people had survived the executions. Of these seven, two were not Mujahideen. Mohammad Khodabandeh Luei was arrested again in 1993 and released after six months. The witness wrote a book called “Come with Me to the Days of Massacre,” which recounts his memories from the 11th of Khordad to Mehr 1988.

In court today, the defendant's defense attorneys tried to focus on and emphasize "the differences between the witness's testimony in court and his interrogations by the Swedish police." Nouri's defense attorney claimed that the witness rarely mentioned Hamid Nouri (Abbasi) in his interrogations and book. Khodabandeloo responded to this claim by saying that in his book, he generally addressed Evin Prison and the names of more than 70 executed political prisoners, not the prison guards.

Nouri's lawyer elsewhere referred to a mistake the witness made during the interrogation regarding the name Abbasi. During that interrogation, the name "Abbasi" was once mistakenly pronounced as "Abbasian" by the witness and the translator. The defendant's lawyer also told the witness about the beating in the gas chamber, but in this section he did not mention Nouri. The witness explained that this was because Nouri had a passive role and his boss had a greater role and responsibility.

Another part of the defense of the accused's lawyer was dedicated to the disputes between the MEK and Iraj Mosadaghi. Nouri's defense lawyer referred to his client's claim that some witnesses, including Mohammad Khodabandehlui, were threatened by Mosadaghi. In this regard, the witness had told lawyer Kenneth Lewis elsewhere: "Do I need to be threatened and coerced to participate in this trial? Even for a completely personal motive, my eyes tell me to participate in this trial."

At the end of the court session, the witness said that he had received a message today from his relatives in a remote village that they were listening to the trial live. The witness said that this shows that public opinion is following this trial closely.

The next court session will be held on Thursday, December 8th, with Reza Shemirani testifying.

Source: Voice of America