Swedish court prosecutes perpetrator of crimes against humanity and war crimes

The Swedish judiciary has opened a trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and murder against an Iranian politician. 

Sweden allows its judiciary to prosecute people for crimes committed outside the country by people who have no connection to the country, whereas in general states only allow people to be tried if there is a connection to that state, for example, because the act was committed there, the person in question has the nationality of that country or resides there, was detained there, etc. 

This is called "universal jurisdiction". 

On this basis, for the first time, a Swedish court is trying one of the leaders of the Iranian regime on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and murder.  

The investigation focuses specifically on Hamid Noury's role in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners at Gohardasht prison in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran. 

In 1988, Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the execution of all political prisoners who supported the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and were loyal to him. Some 30,000 men and women were executed within a few months, the vast majority belonging to the PMOI. 

According to witnesses, Noury was, among other things, in charge of leading the condemned to the gallows. He personally executed several of them. 

To enforce his fatwa, Khomeini had set up death commissions, consisting of three or four authorities in all provinces. In Tehran, it consisted of Ebrahim Raisi, the current president of the regime, Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi and Morteza Eshraghi. 

Hamid Noury was arrested upon his arrival in Sweden in November 2019. 

A few days later, the democratic opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran leaked a recorded conversation between Noury's former boss and another official, in which the former boss claims to have told him not to travel to Sweden because of a plot to have him arrested. It is also suspected that this could be a leak from a rival faction within Iran's security and intelligence apparatus. 

On 27 July 2021, after 21 months of investigation, the Stockholm court prosecutor's office issued an indictment against Hamid Noury. 

His trial began on 10 August 2021 and is expected to end in April 2022.  

In the course of the investigation, PMOI members and supporters who witnessed Noury's crimes testified before the Swedish authorities and provided extensive evidence and documents. Most of the 35 complainants in the case belong to the PMOI. Many saw him on death row in Gohardasht prison, where prisoners queued up before being taken to the execution chamber. 

The investigation was overseen by Senior Attorney General Kristina Lindhoff Carleson. The indictment reads in part: 

"Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, shortly thereafter issued a fatwa/order that all prisoners in Iranian prisons who belonged/sympathised with the Mujahideen and were faithful/loyal in their beliefs were to be executed. Shortly thereafter, mass executions of Mujahedin supporters/sympathisers held in Iranian prisons began". 

Between 30 July 1988 and 16 August 1988, Hamid Noury, as Deputy Prosecutor or in a similar capacity, in cooperation and collusion with other perpetrators, in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, Iran, executed many prisoners who were members or sympathisers of the Mujahedin. Hamid Noury's involvement in the executions consisted of organising and participating, in agreement and consultation with others, in the executions. In agreement/consultation with others, he organised and participated in the executions, including the selection of prisoners to be brought before a court-like commission (committee), which was mandated by the fatwa/order of the day to decide which prisoners were to be executed. Noury took these prisoners to the so-called death row and kept them there, read the names of the prisoners to be brought before the committee, brought them before the committee, provided written or oral information about the prisoners to the committee, read the names of the prisoners to be brought to execution, ordered the prisoners to line up to be escorted to the place of execution and also escorted the prisoners to the place of execution. The prisoners were then deprived of their lives on the gallows. Hamid Noury himself, on some occasions, witnessed and participated in the executions. 

What makes the trial more significant is that the regime's new president, Ebrahim Raisi, was one of the four members of the Tehran Death Commission in 1988 and personally sent thousands of prisoners to the gallows. 

In his first press conference after being appointed president, Raisi was proud of his role in the massacre. 

In an unprecedented decision, on 26 October 2021, the judge announced that the Stockholm court would move to Durrës, Albania, for a fortnight and reconvene on 10 November 2021. 

This decision was taken to facilitate the hearing of the testimonies of seven PMOI members residing in Ashraf 3, who are considered key witnesses in the case. 

Judge Radmannen Tomas Zander, who presided over the hearing, said. 

 "Despite all the difficulties and challenges related to the transfer, we made this decision taking into account the importance of the testimonies of the complainants who are in Albania. Given the importance of these testimonies for the case, the six judges, two prosecutors and the complainants' lawyers will travel to Albania". 

The testimonies of the seven Ashraf 3 witnesses, who provided first-hand information about the atrocities and mass executions in Gohardasht, shocked the court.  

A model of Gohardasht prison, made from the testimonies, was brought to the trial in Albania and used to give prosecutors, judges and lawyers an overview of the events at Gohardasht prison. 

Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, has called for an independent investigation into the alleged execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 and the role played by President Ebrahim Raisi as Tehran's deputy prosecutor at the time.  

In an interview with Reuters, he said his office had collected testimony and evidence over the years. He expressed concern about reports that some "mass graves" are being destroyed as part of an ongoing cover-up. "I think it is time and it is very important, now that Ebrahim Raisi is the (elected) president, to start investigating what happened in 1988," he said from London.