Iranian sentenced to life in prison by Swedish court for role in 1988 prisoner massacres OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
A Swedish court has sentenced a former Iranian official to life in prison for his role in a mass murder of prisoners in Tehran nearly 35 years ago, in a case that is sure to have wide-ranging international repercussions.
Hamid Nouri, a 61-year-old former Iranian judicial officer, has been accused of participating in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988. He was convicted on Thursday by the Stockholm court on charges of crimes against international law after a months-long trial. .
The case is the latest application of the principle of universal jurisdiction, under which those accused of the most heinous crimes against humanity can be tried in any court.
“It’s a historic day for me,” Laleh, the brother of a victim, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT. “I am very happy and grateful. I can’t describe how I feel, I’m crying. That is the magic of justice today.”
The conviction and sentencing marks the first time an Iranian official has been held responsible for the infamous prisoner killings ordered by Iran’s late Supreme Leader and Founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died the following year.
Many of the dead had already been convicted and were serving their terms. But Khomeini wanted to empty the prisons and ordered that anyone in the prison who refused to renounce their faith and embrace the Islamic regime should be put to death. Thousands were killed. Nouri was charged with participating in murders, including rounding up prisoners, taking them to mass trials and escorting them to execution sites.
“Unlike thousands of political prisoners who were executed without a fair trial in Iran in 1988 on the basis of their religious and political beliefs, Hamid was tried in a democratic country through a fair and lengthy judicial process that gave him every opportunity to establish a proper to prepare for defence.” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, wrote in a tweet.
Nouri was arrested during a visit to Sweden in 2019 and has repeatedly denied the charges. Dozens of witnesses, including former prisoners and their relatives, testified at the trial, which lasted more than 96 sessions over nearly a year.
The case is expected to infuriate Tehran.
President Ebrahim Raisi, a tough ideologue, was one of the judicial officials who took part in the 1988 killings and went on to say he was proud of his actions. Tehran is also holding an untold number of dual nationals on false charges as actual hostages, demanding that Nouri and other Iranian regime figures detained in the west be released in return.
Iran is currently detaining Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalal, who was sentenced to death in an Iranian court on dubious charges of espionage after a largely secretive trial.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani condemned the ruling, which he described as a plan devised by the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, (MEK), the Iranian organization in exile whose members were the main victims of the murders in 1988.
“We deeply regret that, contrary to the good bilateral ties, Sweden has incurred high costs to give in to the evil propaganda machine” of the MEK, he said in comments from the official IRNA, “Sweden has its legal system at its disposal made of the [MEK]criminal causes and practically acquitted terrorism.”
Mr Kanani warned that the case would damage bilateral ties.
International human rights lawyers welcomed the verdict. Amnesty International has long drawn attention to the killings in the prisons and has released a major report on the murders in 2018.
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, described the verdict as “an unprecedented step towards justice” for the killings, and called for more prosecutions of regime officials.
“For more than three decades, survivors and relatives of thousands of political dissidents who were extrajudicially murdered and forcibly disappeared in Iran’s 1988 prison massacres fought for truth and justice. With this first-ever verdict against an Iranian official, albeit in a European court, they have finally witnessed an Iranian official being held accountable for these crimes.”