On Wednesday, December 19, the Swedish Court of Appeal upheld the life imprisonment sentence for Hamid Nouri, who was accused of involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s.
Hamid Nouri, also known by the alias Hamid Abbasi, a former deputy in the judicial system of the Iranian regime, was arrested in November 2019 following a court order in Sweden.
After 93 trial sessions at the Stockholm District Court, on July 14, 2022, he was convicted of complicity in the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the families of the victims.
It is possible that Hamid Nouri’s lawyers may attempt to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Sweden.
The confirmation of Hamid Nouri’s sentence has been met with support from the opponents of the Iranian regime and the supporters of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran organization (PMOI/MEK). Some of them celebrated in Stockholm. In the summer of 1988, the regime executed more than 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were supporters and members of the MEK. The event became known as the 1988 massacre.
Iranian authorities have been pressurizing Sweden to release Nouri, threatening them with hostage-taking and blackmailing.
In March 2023, the Iranian regime arrested Johan Floderus, a Swedish employee of the European Union diplomatic apparatus. Masoud Setayeshi, the spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, announced on November 8 that the case of this Swedish citizen had been sent to court to issue an indictment.
The Swedish prosecutor’s office had accused Hamid Nouri, using the alias Hamid Abbasi, of deliberately causing the death of a large number of prisoners, members or supporters of the MEK and other opposition groups, when he served as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor or a similar position at Gohardasht Prison in the summer of 1988.
The Iranian regime claims that Hamid Nouri was deprived of basic rights, such as the right to contact his family and access to medical care during his detention, and that he was tortured during this period. Sweden has rejected these claims. Ironically, the prisoners who were executed by Nouri and his associates were tortured and deprived of their most basic rights, including a fair trial and access to a lawyer of their choosing.
On the other hand, the Iranian regime continues its policy of hostage-taking and putting pressure on Western countries.
On May 26, the Omani government disclosed its role in facilitating a prisoner exchange between Belgium and Iran’s regime. However, the release of Assadollah Assadi, a convicted terrorist diplomat from Tehran, drew strong condemnation from the Iranian opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Before this incident, the Belgian Constitutional Court had issued a mandate requiring Brussels to inform the victims before extraditing the convict to Iran, granting them the opportunity to seek legal recourse. Shockingly, Assadi was released without notifying the victims, blatantly disregarding their rights and violating the court order.
Tehran will persist in its nefarious acts of terrorism and hostage diplomacy, utilizing its embassies as hubs for these activities. European countries must confront the clerical regime’s terrorism sooner rather than later.
