Iran
Courtroom sketch shows Iranian defendant Hamid Noury (second from left) sitting in the District Court of Stockholm on the opening of his trial for war crimes and murder on August 10, 2021. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran reiterated its calls to release an Iranian national sentenced for war crimes by a Swedish court last month, state media reported on Monday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with Sweden’s Ambassador to Iran Mattias Lentz and he demanded the “immediate release” of Iranian national Hamid Noury, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court after being convicted of committing grave war crimes and murder of a large number of prisoners in 1980s.
Stockholm’s District Court in mid-July said that Noury took part in severe atrocities in the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.
Amir-Abdollahian deemed the court ruling “illegal,” according to state media.
Sweden has the right to try foreigners suspected of serious international crimes, as it applies the universal jurisdiction principle.
Iran’s foreign ministry has previously dismissed the verdict as “political.”
In the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war, on July 26, 1988, thousands of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group crossed the border into Iran with the support of the Iraqi air force, the last major offensive before a United Nations ceasefire came into effect.
The Iranian government put prisons across the country on lockdown, and soon rumors spread around the country of prisoners killed and their bodies dumped into mass graves. Those killed had been jailed for their opposition to the Iranian regime, including followers of MEK.
At the time, Noury served as the assistant to the deputy governor of Gohardasht prison in Karaj when an estimated 5,000 prisoners were killed across Iran following an order from then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
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