Swedish prosecutors on Tuesday (July 27) announced they were charging Iranian national Hamid Noury with “war crimes and murder” in connection with the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 in Iran.
In the summer of that year, Iran’s then-leader Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, issued an order to execute all inmates held in Iranian prisons who sympathized with or were Leftists.
According to ample evidence and testimony from former political prisoners, Noury — known as “Abbasi” in the late 80s — was an assistant prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, at the time of the mass executions.
Amnesty International and multiple other human rights organizations have described the mass killings of 1988 as a crime against humanity.
The bodies of those executed were not turned over to their families, nor was the location of their burial disclosed to them.
The case against 60-year-old Noury, who was arrested in Sweden in 2019 upon his arrival at Stockholm airport, concerns his alleged part in the 1988 mass killings.
Accused of committing crimes against humanity, Nouri is expected to go on trial on August 10. The trial is expected to last through mid-April 2022.
Facing him in the trial is a group of more than 30 plaintiffs, made up of former prisoners who witnessed the alleged atrocities and relatives of victims.
The mass executions were decided by a group later known as the “death commission”, in which Iranian president-elect Ebrahim Raisi had a key role.
Raisi, referred to as a mass murderer by several global rights groups is set to take over the presidency from Hassan Rouhani on July 31 and is widely known as being the main decision-maker in the mass executions of 1988.
Source: Al-Mashareq
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