Swedish court convicts Iranian ex-official over 1988 executions

Swedish court convicts Iranian ex-official over 1988 executions

B.B.C News- July 14th ,2022

By David Gritten

A Swedish court has found a former Iranian official guilty of war crimes in connection with the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.

Hamid Nouri, 61, was sentenced to life in prison for what prosecutors said was his leading role in the killing of large numbers of opposition supporters.

His lawyer said he would appeal, while Iran called the verdict “political”.

Nouri was arrested after flying to Sweden in 2019 and was tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

He was the first person to face prosecution for participating in the executions, which Iran’s establishment has never formally acknowledged.

The trial has strained relations between Sweden and Iran, which has been accused of using an Iranian-Swedish dual national sentenced to death on spying charges as a “hostage” in an attempt to force an exchange with Nouri.

Swedish prosecutors accused Hamid Nouri of committing war crimes and murder between July and September 1988, when they said he was assistant to the deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj.

Following an attack during the Iran-Iraq War by Iraq-based members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order to execute all prisoners who were loyal to or sympathised with the leftist opposition group.

Secret tribunals that came to be known as “the Death Committee” interrogated and sentenced to death thousands of inmates. Iran’s current President, Ebrahim Raisi, was one of the four judges who sat on the tribunals, although he denies involvement in the killings.

The exact number of those who were subsequently executed is not known, but human rights groups have said that between 2,800 and 5,000 men and women were hanged and then buried in unmarked mass graves in what constituted a crime against humanity.