Hamid Nouri sentenced to life imprisonment for involvement in the 1967 executions
On Thursday, July 13, 2022, after nine months of deliberation, the judge and jury of the Stockholm District Court announced the verdict against Hamid Nouri, accused of involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 2018.
On Thursday, the court confirmed Mr. Nouri's life sentence.
This is the first time that one of the defendants in this case has been tried and convicted after more than three decades of the mass execution of political prisoners in Iranian prisons in the summer of 2018.
The Swedish prosecutor had previously accused Nouri of "war crimes" and "premeditated murder" and demanded a "life sentence" for him.
Hamid Nouri, known as "Hamid Abbasi", the former assistant prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison, was tried in Sweden for nine months on two main charges of "international war crimes" and "premeditated murder."
The first court session of his trial began on August 10, 2021, and ended on May 4, 2022. The court held 93 sessions to hear the plaintiffs' statements and the defendant's defenses.
During this time, at least 60 plaintiffs and witnesses, and 12 experts in the fields of Islamic jurisprudence and international law, spoke about the case.
In the summer of 1988, a four-member group, on the orders of Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Republic at the time, re-tried and executed thousands of political and ideological prisoners who were serving their sentences in prisons on political charges.
Hossein Ali Nayiri, Morteza Eshraqi, Ebrahim Raisi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi were the four judicial officials and the main figures of this "death commission."
In the same year, Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then deputy leader of the Islamic Republic, met with them and called their actions "the biggest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic" and the 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.”
Hossein Ali Nayiri, the Islamic Republic's religious leader at the time of the summer 1988 executions, who, according to witnesses at Hamid Nouri's trial, headed the group known as the "Death Commission," made a rare statement last week defending the executions and accusing the executed of preparing "new conspiracies."
He accused the executed of "childish obstinacy" and also of attempting to cause "economic damage to the system" by cutting telephone wires and breaking light bulbs.
The Islamic Republic had called for Hamid Nouri's release on the eve of the final verdict in the case in Sweden.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy Chief of the Judiciary and Secretary of the Islamic Republic's Human Rights Headquarters, in a letter to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also demanded "compensation for the moral and material damages" he suffered.
Shortly after the hearings began, the Iranian government reacted against the holding of this trial and even indirectly threatened to carry out the death sentence of Ahmad Reza Jalali, an Iranian-Swedish physician and university professor.
Mr. Jalali, who is currently in the prisons of the Islamic Republic, has been accused of "spying and selling information to Israel" and "corruption on earth."
Source: Radio Farda
