Witness in Hamid Nouri's trial: Wrongful execution of a person and the presence of Ebrahim Raisi on the "death committee"

The 38th trial session of Hamid Nouri, former assistant prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and one of the defendants in the mass executions of Iranian political prisoners in 2018, was held in the city of Durres, Albania. Akbar Samadi testified in this session.

The 38th session of the court hearing the charges against Hamid Nouri, former deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and one of the defendants in the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran, was held in the city of Durres, Albania, on Monday, November 15 (November 15).

This fourth court session in Albania was dedicated to hearing the testimony of Akbar Samadi, a former political prisoner and member of the “People’s Mojahedin Organization” as a plaintiff and witness. He is among seven witnesses whose testimony the court traveled to Albania to hear.

Akbar Samadi was arrested in 1988 at the age of 14 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of supporting the “People’s Mojahedin Organization.” He served his sentence in prisons such as Gohardasht and Qezl-e Hassar.

Regarding the executions of the summer of 2018, Samadi said that he saw Davud Lashkari in Gohardasht Prison with a number of IRGC guards transporting a "farghoni with a rope hanging from it."

Another witness in previous hearings of this court also named "Naserian, Davud Lashkari, and Hamid Abbasi" as individuals who were involved in torturing and harassing prisoners.

According to Samadi, these executions began in Evin Prison on August 25 and in Gohardasht Prison on August 26.

Samadi added: "I have with me the names of 177 people who were executed in Gohardasht alone. My list, of course, is 377 people, some of whom were executed in Evin Prison and some in Gorgan city and Khuzestan province."

“Nouri executed someone by mistake”

The plaintiff and witness in this case also said in relation to the defendant in this court that Hamid Nouri had executed someone "by mistake" due to a similarity in name to someone else.

This former political prisoner said that on August 3, late at night, Hamid Abbasi (Nouri) came and called out the names of 14 people; when he called out Morteza Yazdi's name, no one answered. He repeated it several times, but still no one answered.

Samadi said that Nouri took someone for execution by mistake and executed Morteza Yazdi instead of Seyyed Morteza Yazdi. Samadi added: “I was imprisoned with Seyyed Morteza Yazdi in Qazl-e-Hazar, but Morteza Yazdi was someone else, and Nouri executed someone else because of this mistake and inaccuracy.”

This witness to the events in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj said that some prisoners had lost their mental balance due to torture and that the Iranian government had decided to "cleanse the prison" through executions.

Samadi said that Nouri would line up those who were not among the executed and who were to be transferred to solitary confinement and take them to the end of “death corridor.” According to Samadi, Nouri would pretend that these people were going to be executed and at the last moment would tell them to turn back.

Witness's encounter with Ebrahim Raisi in prison

Akbar Samadi, a member of the “People’s Mojahedin Organization,” said in the court hearing that in 2018, Ebrahim Raisi, as deputy prosecutor, asked him to give an interview in a session of judges known as the “Death Panel” and condemn “Komala, one of the Kurdish parties” in order to be pardoned. Samadi had told him that he was not a member of the Komala party, and the former prisoner’s refusal to accept the interview request angered Ebrahim Raisi, but he finally accepted the interview request after going to the “Death Panel” room four times.

In previous hearings in Albania, Mohammad Zand, Majid Sahebjama, and Asghar Mehdizadeh, former prisoners from the 1960s, gave their testimonies.

It was previously announced that weeks 45 and 46 of the trial would be held in the city of Durres, Albania, starting on Wednesday, November 10, due to the importance of hearing witnesses based in Albania in proving the defendant's guilt.

Hamid Nouri is in Stockholm and was present at the Durres court hearing via video. He was arrested at Stockholm airport upon arrival in Sweden in November 2019 and was indicted after 20 months in pre-trial detention. Nouri has denied the charges against him.

The significance of the Hamid Nouri trial is that it is the first time that an Islamic Republic security official who participated in the mass executions of 1988 has been arrested and tried outside the country. The killing of political prisoners in 1988 has been reported by human rights organizations for years, but no defendant has ever been tried in this connection.

Hamid Nouri has been identified by witnesses in the case as the assistant prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and one of the eight members of the "death committee" in this prison during the mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 2018.

Another important issue is the role of Ebrahim Raisi, the 13th head of state of the Islamic Republic, in this case. Raisi served as deputy prosecutor during the executions of the summer of 2018 and is said to have been one of the four main figures of the “death squad.”

Nouri's trial is likely to continue until April next year.

Hamid Nouri was arrested on November 9, 2019 at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport by order of the Swedish prosecutor and on charges of participating in "mass murder."

The indictment against Nouri was issued by the Swedish Prosecutor's Office for International and Organized Crime, specifically by Christina Lindhoff-Carlsson, and handed over to the Swedish judicial authorities.

This case involves about 40 plaintiffs and 60 witnesses who were imprisoned in Gohardasht Prison in the summer of 2018.

According to the court's ruling, Nouri and his lawyers will not be present at these hearings and will remain in Sweden, attending the court hearing via video call.

According to unofficial statistics, more than 6,000 members and supporters of various opposition parties and groups, especially the People's Mojahedin Organization, were executed during the 1988 executions ordered by Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. However, the MEK says that this number exceeded 30,000 political prisoners, at least 90 percent of whom were supporters of the organization.

Through his lawyers, Hamid Nouri denies all charges and claims that he was on leave due to the birth of his child at the time of the executions in the summer of 2018.

Survivors and families of the killed hope that Hamid Nouri's trial will be a turning point for the beginning of an international investigation into the massacres of the 1960s, especially the summer 1988 massacre, and for the punishment of its perpetrators and commanders.

Source: DW