Former Iranian judges make allegations of mass executions before sentencing in the case of an Iranian official in Sweden
Hossein-Ali Nayeri, a former deputy chief justice of Iran’s Supreme Court, claims that mass executions carried out in 1988 were necessary to eliminate conspirators plotting against the government.
Nayeri made the statement in an interview with Iran’s Islamic Revolution Document Center, a website that collects documents related to the 1979 revolution.
Nayeri was appointed head of the so-called death committee that carried out the executions, according to witnesses who have testified in the case of Hamid Nouri in Sweden.
Witnesses too say Nayeri accused the people who were executed of preparing “new conspiracies” before they were killed.
Nouri, a former Iranian official, is on trial in Stockholm in connection with the mass executions, which eliminated thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 for a three-day period.
The Islamic Revolution Document Center’s interview with Nayeri was published on July 9, when the Swedish judiciary was preparing to announce a verdict in Nouri’s case.
The death committee was a group of four people tasked with carrying out a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Republic at the time, to execute thousands of political and ideological prisoners who were serving time in prison.
Nayeri, who served as deputy chief of staff at the Supreme Court at the time, accused them of creating “organizational relations” and “new organizations” inside the prison, as well as “obtaining information outside the prison.”
“The atmosphere in the prison was in their hands and therefore new conspiracies were going on. It was not that they just wanted to spend their days in prison,” Nayeri said in the interview, which according to the document center was the first time he has spoken publicly about the executions.
Nayeri also accused the people who were executed of “childish stubbornness” and of trying to cause “financial damage to the system” by cutting telephone lines and breaking light bulbs.
Khomeini’s fatwa initially targeted members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), a militant leftist group that was considered by some to be a sect that for several years was considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Britain.
MKO participated in the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979, but it was soon branded a threat by the new clerical establishment.
Through his fatwa, Khomeini paved the way for the immediate execution of Iranian prisoners who were judged to be loyal to MKO, many of whom had been gathered for even the slightest perceived affiliation. Fatwan eventually encompassed all left-wing opponents of the regime, including Communists, Trotskyists, Marxist-Leninists and others.
The Iranian government has never acknowledged the mass executions, nor has it provided any information on the number of prisoners killed.
The rights watchdog Amnesty International has estimated that 4,500 people were executed, while MKO estimates that the number is around 30,000. Many of the victims were buried in secret.
Nayeri said there were “special conditions” in Iran in the 1980s and that the situation in the country was “critical”.
“If it were not for the Imam [Khomeini]’s determination, maybe we should not have this security at all, “he said in the interview.” Maybe the situation would have been different. “Perhaps the Islamic Republic would not have survived at all.”
Given the lack of action in the country, Human Rights Watch has said that foreign courts should take up the matter and prosecute Iranian officials involved in the killings, just as Sweden does with Nouri.
Nouri is charged with international war crimes and human rights violations in connection with the murders of more than 100 people in a prison in Karaj.
Swedish prosecutors are demanding life imprisonment for Nouri, who has been in custody in Sweden since he was arrested in Stockholm in November 2019. Stockholm District Court has said that a verdict in the case is expected on July 14.