On Thursday, the Swedish judiciary will hand down its verdict on Hamid Nouri, the first Iranian official to be tried for his alleged involvement in Tehran-ordered mass executions in 1988.
Nuri’s trial began in Stockholm in August 2021, aggravating relations between Sweden and Iran and raising fears of reprisals against Western prisoners detained in Iran, including two Swedish-Iranian citizens.
Nuri, 61, is on trial for “crimes against international law,” a term used by Swedish justice to refer to crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as “murder” as part of an operation to eliminate dissidents in a prison near Tehran. in 1988.
This is the first time that an Iranian official has been put on trial for his involvement in the executions, which were mainly directed against the Mujahedin-e-Khalq opposition organization, at the time allied with Baghdad, in response to attacks carried out at the end of Iran. Iraqi war. Executions were carried out at that time on the direct orders of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
At the end of the trial, prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for the accused. The verdict is expected to be announced around 13:30 (11:30 GMT).
During a nine-month hearing, Nouri denied the content of the testimony of former prisoners who accused him of participating in a series of executions, condemning what he called a “plot” organized by the “People’s Mujahideen Organization” in an attempt to discredit the regime in Tehran, he said.
Source: AFP