Summary of Hamid Nouri’s First Round of Defense; ‘The Truth is With Me, From Production to Consumption!’

According to the Swedish prosecution indictment, Hamid Nouri, using the alias Hamid Abbasi, is accused of intentionally killing a very large number of prisoners who were members or supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization as well as members or supporters of leftist groups in the summer of 1367 (1988), while serving as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor or in a similar position. The charges against Hamid Nouri are based on the principle of universal jurisdiction and Swedish criminal law, covering war crimes and intentional killing of political prisoners in the summer of 1367.

His arrest was carried out with prior planning by Iraj Mesdaghi, a prisoner who survived the summer executions of 1367, several of his cellmates, and several lawyers. The final detention order for the accused was issued five days after his arrest on November 13, 2019.

Hamid Nouri’s trial began on August 10, 2021. Judge Thomas Sander presided over the court during this period.

Key Points and Highlights of Hamid Nouri’s First Round of Defense:

The accused stated in the first phase of his defense sessions (43rd to 47th) that:

• The charges against him are a disgusting screenplay written by his hero Iraj Mesdaghi and copied by court witnesses and plaintiffs.
• At most, he was on paid maternity leave two months before his daughter’s birth on July 28, 1988 – the day executions began – and two months after that for his wife’s childbirth.
• Most Iranians have a second name and he has been confused with another person.
• The witnesses and plaintiffs are liars and their testimonies are completely contradictory.
• His case has an international dimension and concerns 85 million dignified and honorable Iranians.
• The truth is with me, from production to consumption!
• In Iran, there is no organization called the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and no prison called Gohardasht.
• If he mentions the name of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and Gohardasht Prison in court, he will be arrested immediately upon entering Iran.
• He is a representative of the people by God’s grace to end the fictional story of the summer 1988 executions after thirty-three years.
• Executions took place in Evin Prison, but he is not aware of how the executions were carried out.
• He has never heard the sound of gunfire in prison.
• Perhaps group sports activities for prisoners were prohibited in some cases in the prison, but he has no knowledge of that.
• During his ten years of service, he only visited Gohardasht Prison a few times for missions.
• Between 1364 and 1367, he visited Gohardasht Prison approximately five to six times for mission purposes.
• He never entered the prison wards of Gohardasht Prison.
• He claimed to have met someone with the alias “Hamid Abbasi” at Gohardasht Prison. He said the real name of Hamid Abbasi at Gohardasht was “Hamid Rahmani” or “Hamid Ali Madadi.” The accused refused to answer any supplementary questions from the prosecutor regarding this person.
• He was responsible for administrative affairs and completing files for prisoners whose temporary release or parole had been approved by the prison director.
• He never conducted group interviews with prisoners.
• He always treated prisoners and their families with respect.
• He was not aware of the transfer of prisoners from Qarchak to Gohardasht and only learned about it during his detention.
• Throughout his life, he has never quarreled with anyone and is fundamentally not inclined to violence.
• His love for prisoners is why he chose to work in prison.
• He wept for a prisoner who had killed three guards and was being executed.
• He has never harmed even a cat.
• Overall, the summer 1988 executions are fundamentally “a fictional and fabricated story.”
• He described Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa regarding the execution of prisoners as a photocopied document whose name, like the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and Gohardasht Prison, is thirty-three years old and fabricated.
• Children of Rajai Shahr prison wrote a unified list under the leadership of Iraj Mesdaghi and Mahdi Eslani, allocating 18 days for the execution of “hypocrites” and 9 days for “communists.”
• In Operation Morvarid or Forough-e Javidan, according to him, 7,000 “hypocrites” invaded Iranian territory and massacred people, especially in Kermanshah.
• The high death toll of the “hypocrite faction” is the reason for creating the story of the 1988 executions by that “faction.”
• The prosecutor confused another operation with Operation Morvarid or Forough-e Javidan.
• ISIS is the “illegitimate offspring” of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization.
• In Iran, there are no political prisoners, and the prisoners at that time were all members of factions or sects.
• He denied the position of deputy prosecutor in prison.
• No one has the right to insult any prisoner in Iranian prisons.
• Prisoners are not tortured in Iran.
• He confirmed the existence of death tunnels, whipping, and clubs not in Iranian prisons but in Iraqi detention camps and cited the film “The Expellees” by Masoud Dehnamaki.

• He denied that prisoners were forced to confess.
• He claimed that interviews were at the request of the prisoners themselves and had no value.
• Group interviews and the presence of other prisoners as spectators were at the request of the interviewed prisoner and were a form of entertainment and visitation among prisoners.
• He called the reports of international organizations such as Amnesty International regarding torture and execution of prisoners in Iran “worthless” and said they are not even worth responding to.
• Prison directors, not prosecutors and their deputies, have the responsibility and authority to transfer prisoners to other prisons.
• The prison director and his deputies have no authority in the prison. They are merely like warehouse keepers whose inventory is prisoners, and when judicial authorities give orders, they must be executed and recorded in the prison file.
• It was possible for one person to be the prosecutor of two prisons simultaneously.
• He claimed that during the time of Nassirian or Haddad in Evin Prison, no documents were sent to the registration office for detention and confinement.
• From several thousand prisoners, according to him “displaced” and “refugees,” no documents in favor of the Islamic Republic have been seized.

Regarding his case, Hamid Nouri considered it necessary to request expert consultations from Iranian war experts concerning the Iran-Iraq War as well as prison affairs experts regarding the identity of prisoners as plaintiffs and witnesses in the prosecutor’s indictment. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Source: Voice of America