1988 purges in Iran: a former prison official sentenced to life in Sweden
Iranian dissidents were demonstrating outside the Stockholm court when Hamid Noury's life sentence was announced on July 14, 2022. AFP - CHRIS ANDERSON
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A Swedish prison sentenced a former head of an Iranian prison to life imprisonment on Thursday for his role in the mass executions of thousands of opponents by the Iranian regime in 1988, a first in the world.
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61-year-old Hamid Noury, who at the time served as an assistant prosecutor in a prison near Tehran, was found guilty of "
aggravated crimes against international law
" and of "
murders,” according to the Stockholm court.
"
The Accused, in his role as assistant to the prosecutor of Gohardasht prison in Karaj, near Tehran, jointly, and in collusion with others, was implicated in the executions, which took place after a fatwa by the Supreme Leader of Iran
,” Ayatollah Khomeini, according to the ruling.
Although the accused as a prison official had a role considered subordinate, this is the first time that an Iranian official has been tried and sentenced for this bloody purge targeting mainly members of the armed opposition movement of the People's Mujahideen (MEK ), hated by Tehran.
Under an alias, Hamid Noury "
searched for the prisoners, brought them to the committee
" in charge of sentencing them to death "
and escorted them to the execution site
", ruled the Stockholm court, which followed the prosecution requisitions for life imprisonment.
A trial started in August 2021
The trial, which began in August 2021, has strained relations between Sweden and Iran and raised concerns of reprisals targeting Western prisoners held by the Islamic regime, including two Swedish-Iranian citizens on death row.
► To read also: Behind the trial of Hamid Noury in Sweden, the shadow of the new Iranian president
Throughout the hearings spread over nine months, Hamid Noury, often theatrical and smiling, had rejected the testimonies of former prisoners accusing him of having participated in a series of executions.
He denounced a plot mounted by the People's Mujahideen aimed, according to him, at discrediting the regime in Tehran, also claiming that he was on leave during the period in question and that he was working in another prison.
The Islamic Republic condemned "
strongly this political decision, which consists in making baseless and fabricated accusations against Iran and its judicial system, with the sentence to life imprisonment of Hamid Noury
", the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. foreigners in a press release.
Human rights groups estimate that at least 5,000 prisoners were executed in the summer of 1988 in chain sentences handed down by "death committees".
The MEK put forward a toll of 30,000 victims.
(
With
AFP)
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