Sweden to start trial of Iran official over ‘mass executions’

The trial of an Iranian official in connection to mass executions of political prisoners in a 1988 purge is to commence tomorrow in Stockholm, Sweden.

Hamid Noury held a senior position at the Gohardasht prison near Tehran according to prosecutors who managed to invoke the legal principle of “universal jurisdiction”, however his lawyer told news agencies that he has denied the charges which include “gross crimes against international law and murder”. The main hearing is expected to continue until April of next year with three scheduled hearings a week.

Noury was arrested in Sweden in 2019 upon his arrival in the country to visit relatives. He was accused of being connected to the mass executions which took place towards the end of the devastating Iran-Iraq War which started in 1980, a year after the founding of the Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

READ: Germany charges Syria doctor with crimes against humanity

One former political prisoner under Noury’s watch, Iraj Mesadghi was quoted as saying “Noury had an active role in that massacre”, adding that “I saw him, I know him well.”

In a statement, Sweden’s Prosecution Authority disclosed that the prisoners had been linked to the People’s Mujahedin of Iran or MEK, a Marxist-Islamist “cult” according to Iran, which has long been designated as a terrorist organisation with a history of carrying attacks against the state and previously cooperated with the Iraqi army during the war.

According to Politico, the case will present awkward questions and could cast new light on Iran’s recently appointed President and former judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, who has long been accused of playing a pivotal role in the executions, having allegedly been part of a so-called “death committee”. Raisi has denied any responsibility in issuing death sentences to some 5,000 political prisoners but has insisted that he was following Khomeini’s fatwa or religious edict on the matter.

READ: Top conservative lawmaker elected Tehran’s new mayor