Today, Monday, in Stockholm, the trial of Iranian Hamid Nouri begins, who is accused of being involved in the massacres that led to the execution of thousands of political prisoners during the summer of 1988, primarily members of the "Mojahedin-e Khalq" organization in Iran. According to the Swedish prosecution, Nouri is charged with serious violations of international law and premeditated murder.
Hamid Nouri is one of the defendants in those executions that occurred through extrajudicial trials, during which mass verdicts were issued in minutes. Nouri was arrested upon his arrival in Sweden in November 2019, and in a precedent in Swedish judicial history, his pretrial detention was extended due to sufficient evidence for his conviction.
Prosecutors and their lawyers state that Hamid Nouri was identified as an assistant to the prosecutor of the Gohardasht prison in Karaj and was a member of the "Death Committee" of eight at that prison during the mass executions. For this reason, a Swedish court has charged him with multiple counts of "war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and involvement in crimes, as well as failing to deliver the victims' bodies to their families."
The primary responsibility for carrying out these executions rested with the "Death Committee," which consisted of the current Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who was then leading the judiciary, Judge Hussain Ali Neri, a representative from the Ministry of Intelligence, Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, and a prosecutor in Tehran named Morteza Ashrafi. There were also subcommittees in the provinces that were responsible for executing the sentences.
According to unofficial statistics, more than 6,000 people, mostly members and supporters of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization, were executed during the 1988 massacres ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini, the former leader of the Iranian regime.
