HAMID NOURY, AN IRANIAN FASCIST EXECUTIONER, HAS BEEN SENTENCED TO “LIFE IMPRISONMENT” IN SWEDEN!

By Hasse-Nima Golkar

For the first time in Swedish legal history, one of the most significant international criminal cases was heard in the Stockholm District Criminal Court, and subsequently in the Court of Appeal, under case number B15255-19. The case was against Iranian citizen Hamid Noury, born on April 29, 1961.

Based on an international agreement (Universal Jurisdiction for International Crimes) ratified by the Swedish government in 2014, the judiciary in Sweden handles cases related to all “Crimes Against Humanity” that have occurred worldwide.

Hamid Noury, serving as an assistant prosecutor in the summer of 1988, worked directly with the “Death Commission” in Gohardasht (Rajai Shahr) Prison in Karaj, located to the west of Tehran. He actively participated in the execution of several thousand political prisoners from July 30, 1988, to August 16, 1988. The bodies of the executed prisoners were transported out of the prison by trucks and buried in secret mass graves in multiple cities across Iran. Several of these mass graves have been discovered by surviving families, including one called “Khavaran” located southeast of Tehran.

The orchestration of the “Death Commission” is said to have been based on Ayatollah Khomeini’s written order on July 28, 1988. Prominent members included Sharia Judge Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, Attorney General Morteza Eshraghi, Intelligence Service representative Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi, and Deputy Prosecutor Ebrahim Raisi, who is now the current President of Iran.

On November 4, 2019, an email stamped “Strictly confidential” from a London-based law firm reached the Stockholm Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit. It stated that Hamid Noury (under the pseudonym Hamid Abbasi) would travel from Iran to Sweden on November 8 or 9, 2019. He was suspected of “Crimes Against Humanity.” Consequently, under the principle of “Universal Jurisdiction for International Crimes,” Hamid Noury was arrested on November 9, 2019, by border police at Arlanda International Airport, north of Stockholm.

The trial commenced on August 10, 2020, with more than ten thousand pages of documented evidence, most of which were indisputable. After 92 sessions, involving about a hundred plaintiffs, eyewitnesses from around the world, and various experts, Hamid Noury’s trial concluded on May 5, 2022.

The Swedish prosecution team, consisting of four women, in their final arguments on April 28, 2022, requested the harshest punishment for Hamid Noury. They sought a sentence of life imprisonment and lifelong deportation from Sweden after serving the sentence, as well as financial compensation to the families of the victims. On July 14, 2022, the Stockholm District Criminal Court jury approved this request. In Sweden, life imprisonment typically lasts at least ten to eighteen years, according to the Criminal Sentence Code.

Hamid Noury stubbornly denies his involvement in the Gohardasht Prison executions of 1988, refusing to accept any responsibility for the massacre of political prisoners. He claims that the trial in Sweden lacks credibility, asserting that the testimonies from plaintiffs and eyewitnesses are fabrications and lies.

Hamid Noury’s defense lawyers appealed the decision, leading to a retrial at the Attunda District Court in northern Stockholm on January 11, 2023. On December 19, 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict from the Stockholm District Court.

This conviction under the principle of “Universal Jurisdiction for International Crimes” in a European court (Sweden) against Hamid Noury, an active participant in the “Death Commission” opens the door for legal action against other members and associates of the commission. This means that if any of them travel to a European country, they risk arrest and prosecution.

The Shia Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, came to power on February 11, 1979. Since then, there have been two significant massacres of political-ideological prisoners in the summers of 1980 and 1988. Exact statistics are not available, but it is believed that several thousand dissidents were tortured during interrogation and sentenced to death in brief trials lasting only a few minutes, without defense lawyers. Additionally, numerous prisoners have disappeared without a trace.

There have long been rumors of a potential agreement between Swedish and Iranian politicians regarding an exchange of Hamid Noury for Swedish and Iranian prisoners held in Iran. This remains a possibility given the economic and political interests shared by these capitalist states.

WE NEITHER FORGIVE NOR FORGET!