Sweden sentences former Iranian official to life in prison for torture, executions |
Stockholm, Sweden –
A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a former Iranian official to life in prison for his part in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s.
Hamid Noury, 61, who was arrested at an airport in Stockholm in 2019, was charged with war crimes for mass execution and torture of political prisoners in the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, 1988.
The Stockholm District Court said that Noury, who she said was the deputy prosecutor at the prison, had “together and in collusion with others been involved in the executions”, which she described as a “serious violation of international law”.
Iran condemned the verdict. “Iran is absolutely certain that Noury’s ruling was politically motivated and has no legal validity,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a statement.
Amnesty International has set the number executed on state orders at around 5,000, and said in a report from 2018 that “the actual number may be higher”. Iran has never acknowledged the killings.
Noury, who denied the allegations, is the only person who has so far been brought to justice for the purge, which targeted members of the Iranian people’s Mujahideen, who fought in parts of Iran, as well as other political dissidents.
His lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Noury can appeal.
The verdict was met with jubilant cheers from hundreds of exiled Iranians who had gathered at the court.
Reza Fallahi, 65, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said he hoped Noury would provide information about the murders while he was in prison.
“We are only looking for truth and justice,” said Fallahi, who spent ten years in prison in Iran for supporting the opposition.
Iran’s National Resistance Council, an opposition umbrella group, said in a statement that “justice will be served” when the top officials are brought to justice.
Rights groups say the hardline President Ebrahim Raisi was one of four judges overseeing the executions.
Asked about the charges, Raisi told reporters in 2021 that “if a judge, a prosecutor has defended the security of the people, he should be praised”.
Some Iranian priests have said that the trials against the prisoners were fair.
The case has worsened relations between the two countries, and Iran calls the trial illegal.
According to Swedish law, courts can convict Swedish citizens and other citizens for violations of international law committed abroad.
Shortly before the trial ended in May, Iranian media reported that the Swedish-Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Djalali, sentenced to death accused of spying for Israel, would be executed. Sweden also said on May 6 that a Swedish tourist had also been detained in Iran.
Iran often uses the arrest and trial of foreigners and bi-citizens as a bargaining chip to obtain concessions from other governments.