UPDATE, AUGUST 1:
Iran has fired its second propaganda volley at Sweden in two days, following the conviction in a Swedish court of former Iranian judiciary official Hamid Nouri (pictured) for his role in mass executions in 1988.
Iranian media said Swedish-Iranian national Habib Farajollah Chaab “confessed” to leading the Harkat al-Nazal group and orchestrating the deadly attack on a military parade in southwestern Iran in September 2018.
Chaab’s court hearing opened in Tehran on Sunday. He reportedly said, “I have acknowledged all of my actions in writing and plead guilty to all of them.”
At least 25 people, including Revolutionary Guards members, were killed in the 2018 bombing.
See also Who’s Behind the Attack Killing 29 in Ahvaz in Southwest Iran?
Iranian outlets wrote that Chaab “admitted to being naturalized by Sweden and backed by the country’s government, saying he had been provided with a device that would alert Swedish security officials to rescue him whenever he was in danger”.
The prosecution declared that Sweden had provided sanctuary for Chaab and for members of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) and Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO).
UPDATE, JULY 31:
In apparent retaliation for Sweden’s conviction of former Iranian judiciary official Hamid Nouri over mass executions in 1988, Iran’s authorities have announced the detention of a Swedish citizen.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said on Saturday that it arrested the Swedish national on espionage charges after surveilling him for some time. It did not identify the detainee, or when and where the arrest was made.
The Ministry claimed that the Swede made several trips to Iran, re-entering several months ago following the arrest of “another European spy” to acquire information about the identity of the detainee.
Sweden’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that its national had been arrested in May, although Iranian officials did not announce the detention at the time.
ORIGINAL ENTRY, JULY 14: Hamid Nouri, an official in Iran’s judiciary, has been convicted by a Swedish court of murder and a “serious crime against international law” over his role in executions of at least 5,000 political prisoners in summer 1988.
Nouri was found guilty after 92 sessions of a trial which lasted almost a year, and in defiance of threats by Iranian officials of retaliation, including the execution of imprisoned Swedish-Iranian medical researcher Ahmadreza Djalali.
The political prisoners were killed in the final months of the Iran-Iraq War. Iranian officials claimed that many of them were members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO), which had pursued the violent overthrow of the Iranian system since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Nouri was arrested at a Stockholm airport in 2019 after Iranian dissidents in Sweden filed police complaints against him. The proceedings were the first against an Iranian official over the mass executions — possibly setting a precedent for those like Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who were also part of the process.
Nouri said at his trial that he was on leave and working at a prison where there were no killings. However, some of the dozens of witnesses, many of them former political prisoners or families of executed detainees, testified that he was present at the executions.
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, responded:
This trial and conviction are historic because for the first time in 43 years, since the inception of the Islamic Republic, an official from #Iran has been held accountable for mass atrocities. #HamidNouri #HamidNoury #حمید_نوری
— Hadi Ghaemi (@hadighaemi) July 14, 2022
Ghaemi continued, “Unlike thousands of political prisoners who were executed without due process based on their religious and political beliefs in Iran in 1988, Hamid was tried in a democratic country through a fair and lengthy judicial process that granted him every avenue to prepare a thorough defense.”
On Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry was still trying to pre-empt the conviction. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, “Sweden should provide the grounds for the release of Nouri as soon as possible.”
Dear Scott Lucas: Thank you for this insightful article. The regime of the mullahs in Iran has executed more than 120,000 of Iran’s best youth and imprisoned and tortured thousands of people in Iran for 40 years. For the first time, one of the perpetrators of this crime was tried in a court that had all the conditions for self-defense. It is interesting to know that this regime, with so many crimes, does not have the capacity to accept the smallest audit, and instead of answering, it wants to justify its crimes by using blackmail tactics, hostage taking, and extortion. No one defends this regime except the mercenaries who get their wages from him. peace be upon you.
There are so many iranians that have fallen into death clause of this murderous regime that one or two EU citizens more or less doesn’t make me to lose sleep….
Iran not to sit idly by over Hamid Nouri’s life sentence, Sweden should rectify behavior: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/07/21/686009/Iran-Kazem-Gharibabadi-Sweden-Hamid-Nouri-life-imprisonment-
““You cannot arrest and prosecute innocent Iranian citizens, be a safe haven for terrorist groups, seize Iran’s money and make its transfer subject to the emancipation of criminals and convicts in Iran, and accuse Iran of hostage-taking!”
More information about the use of “lay judges” in Sweden: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/lay-judges-sweden-short-introduction
“Research shows that lay judges behave very passively during the deliberation process and that verdicts in which the lay majority outvotes the professional judge are very rare. The lay judges tend to find the defendant guilty, or require a more severe punishment than the professional judge, who tends to want to free the accused or give a more lenient sentence. Lay judges have high self-esteem and think they exert important influence on the decisions, despite the fact that the professional judge plays a primary role during deliberations.”
Iran recalls ambassador to Sweden for consultations : https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/07/20/685975/Iran-recalls-ambassador-to-Sweden-for-consultations
“Shortly before the sentence, Nouri had given details of his physical torture at the hands of his jailers during a short phone contact with his family. He also complained that no human rights organization had visited him during his long-running solitary confinement. The Islamic Republic has dismissed the Swedish court’s sentence as illegal and called for Nouri’s immediate release.”
From your link: https://www.domstol.se/en/nyheter/2022/07/iranian-citizen-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-executions-of-political-prisoners-in-iran-in-1988/
” The district court has therefore concluded that the Mujahedin became part of the international armed conflict between Iran and Iraq.”
That ruling is itself nonsensical. The MEK were never a recognized military, just a bunch of terrorists fighting against their own country. You know that.
“-It has, considering these circumstances, been difficult to assess the credibility and reliability of the statements, comments Tomas Zander. Here, the Court has taken into account that one has an ability to remember key details, such as the perpetrator’s appearance, during very emotional events. The Court has also considered that one is better at remembering people who are known rather than unknown. It has been shown in the case that the accused was known to many of the plaintiffs at the time of the acts.”
That is a salient admission and makes an assumption about reliability that is unwarranted and entirely subjective.
“The circumstances have been such that the accused is to be regarded as a perpetrator.”
Mr. Nouri never handed down any sentences. He was simply a prison guard.
“It’s not a “missed point”. Again, this is the official Iranian line — but there has no mention, outside the regime’s assertions, that Noury’s lawyers could not present witnesses.”
Mr. Nouri did want to present witnesses – in particular to prove his point that he was on paternity leave at the time when he was alleged to have been present at Gohardasht during the alleged mass executions of MEK memvers – but the court did not allocate any time for them. I spoke to both Daniel Marcus (barrister) and Thomas Söderqvist (solicitor) and they both told me that the court had made it virtually impossible to present witnesses or to get Swedish authorities to grant visas to his associates living in Iran to visit Sweden.
The court gave him just four days to respond (in full) to the allegations made but gave 60 days for the prosecution to call up hundreds of “witnesses” from amongst the MEK. To my knowledge, none of those at the MEK camp in Albania were cross-examined.
Varharan,
Sorry — that’s more propaganda. Noury’s team could have put up witnesses and, of course, could cross-examine the prosecution witnesses.
And the witnesses are not all MEK members. Many were relatives of detainees who were not part of the MEK but were still executed.
As for your name-dropping of Nouri’s lawyers Thomas Söderqvist and Daniel Marcus — whatever you claim about your e-mail correspondence — neither has publicly stated that they were limited in presenting witnesses, in cross-examination, or in the duration of their defense.
Of course, if you have a single piece of evidence to challenge this, do so. But you haven’t done so far.
S.
Sorry, but how do you *know* this having not followed the proceedings or having an insight into the Swedish judiciary?
Sweden apparently does not have a jury system except for matters relating to the freedom of the press. However, international standards require an impartial jury to make the decision to convict for serious offenses, not a panel of judges. So this is a major failing of Sweden’s “justice” system in general: https://www.aklagare.se/en/from-crime-to-sentence/trial/
Hamid Noury’s lawyers were selected for him by the authorities – he did not choose them. They focused largely on the fact that he was not present at the time when he alllegedly brought prisoners to the execution chamber. I know that nobody was called up as a witness in his defense and that none of the MEK members in Albania were cross-examined. Whether that is the failing of his lawyers, or the judges, is not clear.
These are Mr. Noury’s own words: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/86471-sweden-iran-noury-faces-death-row-survivors.html
“”I have only four days to answer all the lies against the Iranian people,” Hamid Noury said in Stockholm District Court on November 23. This is the first time the 60-year-old has spoken, three months after his trial began. “
Varharan,
Ah, now you’re changing your argument — it is no longer that Nouri was specifically treated unfairly but that: 1) Sweden has a general failing in its justice system; 2) you don’t like Nouri’s lawyers and the way they conducted the defense.
You might want to ask the Iranian authorities why they didn’t ensure Nouri could not select his lawyer, if he wished, rather than having public defenders appointed — as is the case in many countries.
S.
Iranian officials condemn the Noury verdict: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/07/14/685625/Iran-rejects-Swedish-court-ruling-unacceptable-politically-motivated
“The spokesman pointed to the unfair trial held in Sweden, saying despite their claim of having independence, Swedish judiciary officials did not even allow Nouri to call his witnesses and defend his rights; the court in its 27th session established a direct video link with the MKO base in Albania after coordination with the Albanian prosecutor’s office and provided the group with an extensive opportunity.” He added that the Swedish judiciary system only dedicated a few days for the defense during the trial, which compared to the time offered to the plaintiffs for issuing the lawsuit was “insignificant and unfair.”
A sham verdict to a political show trial. Why the case against Mr. Noury was a stunt:
1. 90% of the court time was allocated for the prosecution. Hardly any time was afforded to the defense to respond to all of the charges made.
2. Mr. Nouri was held in solitary confindement throughout his detention in Sweden and denied visits – in contravention to human rights law.
4. He was afforded weak legal representation by a solicitor and barrister who do not typically handle these types of cases.
5. The proceedings were held amidst an orchestrated political campaign by the MEK (whose members were executed in 1988 for treason), who heckled and harassed Mr.Noury’s family members and effectively intimidated the authorities with their daily presence outside of the court building in Stockholm.
6. Mr. Noury was denied trial by jury. Instead, he was tried by a panel of six judges who were all under political pressure to secure a conviction.
7. The witnesses for the prosecution were not all allowed to be cross-examined by the defense and their dubious integrity seriously questioned.
8. The court located itself to a camp in Albania where MEK members are, according to media reports, indoctrinated, tortured and even murdered for dissent. Their testimony was effectively worthless, and the court is effectively complicit in these abuses (which Dr. Ghaemi prefers to ignore).
9. The prosecution spent most of its time preparing a case against the leadership of the Islamic Repubic, and not against Mr. Nouri himself. The prosecution itself admitted that the defendant did not carry out or authorise any of the alleged executions, but was only associated with the actions of other officials.
10. Even the prosecution admitted that their case for “war crimes” was very weak, and was predicated on the ridiculous claim that MEK prisoners were effectively PoWs because their “army” was allied with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. They were actually all illegal combatants fighting against their own country.
An appeal is possible, but is unlikely to be successful whilst the judges are under political influence.
Varharan,
Almost none of this is true, but it is the official line of the Iranian regime.
S.
Missed point
3. Noury was not allowed to field any witnesses in his defense.
This was a show trial by any and every definition.
Varharan,
It’s not a “missed point”. Again, this is the official Iranian line — but there has no mention, outside the regime’s assertions, that Noury’s lawyers could not present witnesses.
https://www.domstol.se/en/nyheter/2022/07/iranian-citizen-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-executions-of-political-prisoners-in-iran-in-1988/
S.
Only someone that has been equally involved in the 1988 massacre or the ongoing human rights abuse in Iran could have had a view as above. The court has listened to Noury’s defense and all the witnesses during some 90 sessions and has concluded that he is guilty of crimes against humanity. The case of Genocide was not accepted as the initial court hearing was about Noury’s role in just one prison in Gohardasht. It’s the legal opinion of many internationally known law experts that what happened in the summer of 1988 amounts to genocide. Sooner but not later, all perpetrators will be held accountable and face justice.
Families Of Victims Of Iranian Mass Executions Pleased By Conviction Of Ex-Official In Sweden
https://www.rferl.org/a/families-victims-iran-mass-executions-please-conviction/31945476.html