15 July 2022 :
On Thursday, July 14, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Hamid Noury to life. Judge Thomas Sanders sentenced Noury to life imprisonment for “serious crimes against international law” and “murder.”
“This is a question of exceptionally serious crimes with such a high penalty value that the sanction cannot be anything less than lifetime imprisonment,” Swedish judges read the verdict for Noury. According to the ruling, this criminal would be permanently expelled from Sweden after serving his sentence.
Back in November 2019, Noury was detained in Stockholm airport for his involvement in the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. Sweden’s principle of universal jurisdiction allows its courts to try a person on serious charges such as murder or war crimes regardless of where the alleged offenses occurred.
Iran has condemned the decision of the Swedish court.
"Iran is absolutely certain that Noury's sentence was politically motivated and it has no legal validity," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
The court said Noury participated “in the executions of many political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988" and had “the role of assistant to the deputy prosecutor” at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, "jointly and in collusion with others been involved in the executions."
Noury was arrested at a Stockholm airport in 2019 and was charged with war crimes for the mass execution and torture of political prisoners at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj in 1988.
Sweden's principle of universal jurisdiction allows its courts to try a person on serious charges such as murder or war crimes regardless of where the alleged offenses took place.
Noury is the only person so far to be tried in the mass executions. He has denied the charges.
The trial, which began in August 2021, is particularly sensitive in Iran, where current government figures have been accused of having a role in the 1988 deaths, most notably President Ebrahim Raisi.
Raisi, a former chief of Iran's judiciary, has denied involvement in the killings, and Tehran has called Nouri's trial “illegal.”
"Sweden should provide the grounds for the release of Nouri as soon as possible," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told a news conference on July 13.
Some in the West have expressed concerns about possible reprisals and use in blackmail terms against Western of prisoners held by Tehran. In that case, two Swedish-Iranian citizens are on death row in Iran as Ahmadreza Djalali.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the ruling as a triumph for justice.
“The Swedish Judiciary issued a life sentence for Hamid Noury, one of the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1988 massacre,” Mrs. Rajavi stated. “I welcome the Swedish Judiciary’s ruling and reiterate that the prosecution of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and regime president Ebrahim Raisi is now more imperative than ever.”
(Source: Ansa, Euronews July 15 2022)
