Zürcher Nachrichten - Swedish court gives Iranian ex-official life in jail over 1988 purge

Noury, 61, was convicted of a "serious crime against international law" and "murder", the Stockholm district court said in a statement.

"The sentence is life imprisonment."

According to the court, Noury was an assistant prosecutor in a prison near Tehran at the time of the events.

"The investigation has shown that the accused, jointly and in collusion with others, participated in the commission of the criminal acts," the court said.

"He has, under an alias and in the role of assistant to the deputy prosecutor, retrieved prisoners, brought them to the committee and escorted them to the execution site."

The proceedings, which have been running since August 2021, have strained relations between Sweden and Iran, raising concerns about reprisals against Western prisoners held by the Islamic regime. Two Swedish-Iranian citizens are on death row.

The case related to the killing of at least 5,000 prisoners across Iran, allegedly ordered by supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

The killings were revenge for attacks carried out by exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) at the end of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88.

- 'Death committees' -

Throughout the nine months of hearings, Noury, often theatrical and smiling, rejected the testimony of former detainees.

He argued that he was on leave during the period in question, and said he worked in another prison. Noury denounced the accusations as a plot by the MEK to discredit the regime in Tehran.

"I hope these hands will be cleared... with the help of God," Noury told the court on the last day of hearings on May 4, his palms raised to the sky and holding a Koran.

Among the dozens called to the stand, several witnesses said they had recognised him instantly.

"When I was in the death corridor... I had the chance to see him and I witnessed that whenever they read some people's names he followed them towards the death chamber," one of the plaintiffs, Reza Falahi, told AFP.

Noury was arrested at a Stockholm airport in November 2019 after Iranian dissidents in Sweden filed police complaints against him.

During the trial, which briefly relocated to Albania to hear some testimony at the end of 2021, MEK supporters have protested loudly outside the Stockholm courthouse, and as the verdict was announced on Thursday a few hundred had gathered outside.

"We swear on the memory of those massacred, we will stay until the end," protesters chanted.

The trial has rendered Stockholm's already chilly relations with Tehran even frostier.

This is partly because rights activists accuse senior Iranian officials now in power -- including current President Ebrahim Raisi -- of having been members of the committees that handed down the death sentences.

The so-called "death committees" are thought to have sent at least 5,000 to be executed. The MEK puts the figure as high as 30,000 victims.

Raisi himself has denied ever having been part of these committees.

- 'Hostage' -

Tehran has repeatedly called on the Swedish government for Hamid Noury's release.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde reaffirmed to her Iranian counterpart in early July that the government was unable to do anything as Nordic country's courts were "completely independent".

Concerned about a recent spate of arrests of Europeans in the country "for no apparent reason", Sweden has been advising its citizens against travel to Iran since late June.

The main concern is the Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali. Sentenced to death in Iran in 2017 on espionage charges, and currently awaiting the sentence to be carried out.

Amnesty International has accused the Iranian authorities of holding him "hostage" in an attempt to force an exchange with Noury and a former Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium, Assadollah Assadi.

A controversial treaty is being considered by the Belgian parliament that would allow the exchange of prisoners with Iran.

Asked about the possibility of such an exchange for the Swedish side, the foreign ministry did not want to comment.

I.Widmer--NZN