Fifty-Second Session of Hamid Noori’s Trial; Witness States He Has ‘Not a Shred of Doubt’ About the Defendant’s True Identity
The fifty-second session of the trial of Hamid Noori, accused of war crimes and participation in the massacre of prisoners in the summer of 1988, took place on Monday, December 13, in Stockholm, Sweden, with testimony from Rahmat (known as Rahman) Ali Karami.
The witness was arrested on September 3, 1981, at the age of seventeen on charges of supporting the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization in Tehran. He experienced various prisons and was ultimately transferred six months before the executions—on February 18, 1988—along with a group of approximately 170 people from Evin Prison to Gohardasht Prison. Ali Karami stated that of this number, 125 were supporters of the Mujahedin, ten were members of religious groups such as Forqan, Movahedin, and Armane Mostazafin, and the rest belonged to leftist groups.
Ali Karami testified that Lashkari and Hamid Noori took a group of 48 people with them in mid-August following an attack by the Mujahedin. Only 16 of this group returned.
The witness said he had once seen Hamid Noori in Evin Prison in 1983, and when he was transferred to Gohardasht Prison in 1988, he saw Hamid Noori again and was beaten by him and the guards in the corridor of death.
At each court session, one of the most important parts is the questioning by the four lawyers for the plaintiffs of the witnesses regarding the identification of identity and confirmation of the executions of individuals mentioned in the indictment. In this session as well, the witness confirmed the identity, presence, and execution of many prisoners.
He testified about how Mehdi Ishaqi was beaten by Hamid Noori and sent to solitary confinement for three months. Rahmat Ali Karami, while testifying about a prisoner named Iraj Lashkari and becoming emotional, said he was one of those transferred with him to Gohardasht… Iraj Lashkari received the most beatings among their group of 125 and was sent to solitary confinement before being executed, like many others.
Ali Karami said that after the executions on the anniversary of the revolution in February 1988, prisoners who survived the executions had their first family visits in the same hall where the executions took place, and it was there that he saw Nasarian and Hamid Noori again.
He said that after being transferred to Evin Prison, he encountered Hamid Noori again. Noori was an assistant guard there, as he was in Gohardasht Prison, and conducted pre-release interviews for prisoners in groups of 20-30 people. The witness said Noori has the same smile, look, and face, just older, and he has not a shred of doubt that he is the same Hamid Abbasi. He identified Nasarian as his interrogator who had tortured him.
Rahmat Ali Karami confirmed in court that he had an interview with Voice of America shortly after Hamid Noori’s arrest.
He said that after serving more than ten years of his sentence, he was released from Evin Prison in December 1991.
The next court session on Wednesday, December 15, will be devoted to the testimony of Manoochehr Ishaqi.
Source: Voice of America
