The 79th session of Hamid Nouri's trial; witness: When Nouri was arrested, I said, "The tailor fell into the pot..."

The 79th trial session of Hamid Nouri, accused of participating in the execution of political prisoners in the summer of 2018 in Gohardasht Prison, was held on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, with the testimony of Mahmoud Khalili in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mahmoud Khalili, known as "Uncle" among the prisoners of Qezl-e-Hesar, was arrested in Tehran on November 24, 1988, on charges of sending poems and articles to the magazine "Kar" and supporting the People's Devotion Guerrillas Organization, and was later sentenced to twelve years in prison.

After his arrest, he was forced to write a will and undergo what is known as an "artificial execution."

Mahmoud Khalili appeared as a witness in this court session and stated that he was transferred from Qezl-e-Hesar Prison to Gohardasht Prison in 1986 and held in various halls and solitary cells of this prison. After the prisoners were divided according to their type of sentence and religious beliefs in 1987, he was transferred to Hall 6 of Gohardasht Prison and was held with about sixty left-wing political prisoners and thirty-eight Baha'i prisoners.

He specifically mentioned Wednesday, August 25, as the day the television was taken from Ward 6 and the air was cut off, saying that this action led to a boycott of food and visits by the prisoners, but unlike previous times, this action by the prisoners was not accompanied by a reaction from the officers, nor was it accompanied by attacks or punishment.

Mahmoud Khalili testified that almost all the guards in Ward Six were replaced in August and September 1988. He said that in mid-August, he witnessed fifty to sixty prisoners entering the courtyard through the main gate of the prison. All of these prisoners were wearing clean clothes and slippers. The witness stated that “the next day, he personally saw a pile of slippers behind the closed iron gate of the prison courtyard.”

Mahmoud Khalili told the court that he was taken to death row on September 28, 1988, and encountered prisoners including Jahanbakhsh Sarkhosh, Majid Vali, Mohammad Ali Behkish, Mohsen Rajabzadeh, and Keyvan Mostafavi. Mahmoud Khalili testified that during his first appearance on death row, he heard the sound of trucks and heard a guard announce their arrival at the prison compound.

Mahmoud Khalili described to the court how people were taken down the death row in groups to be executed. In describing the execution of Keyvan Mostafavi, he said that Keyvan had jumped to the end of the line leading to the amphitheater and had mistakenly joined the group of those being executed. The witness told the court that he later personally collected Keyvan's remaining belongings, put them in Keyvan's bag, and wrote [Keyvan's information] on it.

Confirming the execution of another prisoner named Jahanbakhsh Sarkhosh, Mahmoud Khalili said he was in contact with Behrang Sarkhosh, the son of the executed prisoner. He said that Behrang, who now lives in Europe, was twelve or thirteen years old at the time of his father’s execution. Behrang told the witness that “after a call from the prison and a visit to the prison, they were informed that Jahanbakhsh Sarkhosh had been executed on the 5th of Shahrivar, but the body would not be given to the family and the family also did not have the right to hold a ceremony for an execution.”

Mahmoud Khalili testified that he himself collected the remaining belongings of some of the executed political prisoners and put them in their bags. He claimed that his handwriting could probably still be seen on some of these bags. He presented the court with photographs of seventy of the families of the executed prisoners, saying that he had taken the photographs of the families of the executed prisoners with him as souvenirs when he collected their belongings. The witness said that he had “brought seventy of these photographs with him to today’s court session.”

Mahmoud Khalili also testified that he was twice put before the death squad in Gohardasht Prison. The first time was on September 28, 1998, after he was transferred from ward six to death row. The witness said that he was put before the death squad, including Nayeri and Ishraqi, in the death cell, and that he and his father were atheists and did not pray, and resisted pressure to accept forced prayer. Mahmoud Khalili testified that after leaving the death squad, he personally heard Naserian tell Abbasi to "take this to the "prayer-speakers' ward" and emphasized that he should not make a mistake! Don't let the story of those thirty-seven people you took by mistake be repeated!"

According to Mahmoud Khalili's testimony, the person addressed in this indictment was "Pasdar Abbasi" who, according to Naserian's own words and claims, had mistakenly executed thirty-seven people in Gohardasht Prison during the execution days.

Describing the events after meeting with the death squad, Mahmoud Khalili said that he and several other rescued prisoners were beaten that night and whipped for refusing to pray. He said that “we learned through Morse code that Ward 7 was empty of prisoners, and through the ventilation hatch we heard a guard telling other prisoners to write a will and put their watches, glasses, and everything they had in these [plastic bags].”

The witness said that it was that night that he saw two trucks. One of them was parked under a streetlight, a few meters away from the amphitheater, at the execution site. He testified that he personally saw the bodies of the executed that night with his own eyes.
Mahmoud Khalili said that he was taken to the “court” again on September 11. This time, only Nairi was present. The witness said that “Siavash and another prisoner implanted a pencil sharpener in our bodies, in order to commit suicide in the worst case scenario.”

Mahmoud Khalili says that it was there that he learned of his second sentence, the death sentence. This sentence was apparently issued by Hojjatoleslam Bidemshki in 1983. Nayeri told the witness that "you should have been executed in 1983, and you got lucky."
Mahmoud Khalili stated that after a brief telephone conversation, Nayeri angrily told the witness, "You're lucky!" Nayeri then told the Guardsman, "Cut him out, and if he goes out of here and says anything about the executions, bring him back and hang him right here in front of the door."

Mahmoud Khalili testified in Tuesday's hearing that until late December 1986, as the ward manager for the prisoners, he had repeatedly encountered "Pasdar Abbasi" in Gohardasht Prison and knew him well. The witness said that Abbasi was a "Pasdar" to him.
Mahmoud Khalili testified that Abbasi personally beat him on Yalda night. Another personal experience the witness had with Abbasi dates back to the day he was informed of his mother's death.

Mahmoud Khalili says he was beaten by Abbasi that day for resisting signing a letter of repudiation. Nasserian told him that instead of a leave request form, he had to sign a letter of repudiation of his organization, loyalty to the Islamic Republic, and an interview in order to attend his mother’s funeral. The witness said that Abbasi responded to his resistance by kicking him and taking the check, telling him, “Even if you had signed, we wouldn’t have given you [leave].”

It should be noted that Shahed's mother had a stroke and died just one day after returning to Gohardasht Prison and rejecting his request to meet with his son, Mahmoud Khalili.
After the executions, Mahmoud Khalili was transferred to Evin Prison in late February 2018 and released ten days to two weeks later.

Explaining his reaction after Abbasi's arrest in Sweden and seeing his photos, Shahed said (to himself), "I said, 'The tailor fell into the pot...'"

In today's hearing, Mahmoud Khalili also testified that Naserian was the prison's deputy prosecutor until 1987. After Mortazavi, the head of Gohardasht Prison, was transferred to Evin Prison, Naserian served as the deputy prosecutor for a while in addition to being the head of the prison. Meanwhile, Lashkari was the head of the task force, and Abbasi played the role of deputy prosecutor.

It is worth mentioning that during his testimony, Mahmoud Khalili also showed the court a souvenir blindfold from his prison time in the 1980s. He said that "these blindfolds are not standard and he is willing to go with them wherever they tell him in court."

Kenneth Lewis, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs in the case, asked the court to include the blindfold as evidence in the indictment. Judge Thomas Sander asked Kenneth Lewis to keep the blindfold before the case is heard and a final decision is made.

Nouri reacted to this claim and said: "Let me see, no one will notice, I have worked in prison for ten years. A prison that you cannot afford a blindfold should be destroyed. Mr. Judge, keep this blindfold, it is important..."

The next court session will be held in Stockholm on Thursday, April 11, 2022, with the testimony of Alireza Akbari Sepehr.

Source: Voice of America