Hamid Nouri: How Sweden arrested a suspected Iranian war criminal
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Hamid Nouri: How Sweden arrested a suspected Iranian war criminal
By Joshua Nevett
BBC News
n the arrivals terminal of Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Swedish police were expecting someone significant.
Onboard a flight from Iran, they were told, was an alleged war criminal, an Iranian official named Hamid Nouri.
Unknown to him, police had been tipped off. Mr Nouri walked off the plane on 9 November 2019 and straight into custody.
A short time later, a Swedish official made a phone call to deliver a message: “You can go home now.”
The recipient of the call had been at the airport, nervously waiting for confirmation of the arrest. He was one of several people whose actions had made the arrest possible.
In interviews with the BBC, they each explained their role in an extraordinary case, of significance in Iran and internationally.
Never before has anyone been criminally prosecuted over the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. Mr Nouri was arrested and later charged over his alleged role, which he denies.
They invoked the international legal principle of universal jurisdiction to arrest Mr Nouri. He is currently on trial in Sweden.
These crimes were allegedly committed during the war between Iran and Iraq. As the war neared its end, Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, ordered the execution of about 5,000 political prisoners.
Many were linked to the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, an opposition group allied to Iraq.
At the time, Mr Nouri was working in a prison near Tehran, prosecutors say.
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