Coinciding Rally by the MEK Supporters in Sweden In Front of the Stockholm Courthouse
Thursday, November 11, 2021 — The second session of the trial of the executioner Hamid Noury, began in the city of Durrës, Albania, with the presence of the plaintiffs and witnesses, members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), residents of Ashraf 3.
Today’s court hearing is dedicated to the testimony of former political prisoner, MEK member Majid Saheb Jam as the plaintiff in the case of Hamid Noury.
The trial of Hamid Noury, one of the executioners of the 1988 massacre, take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, November 10-12, and next week, Monday through Thursday, November 15-18, 2021, in Durrës Court, Albania.
This was the 36th trial session of the henchman Hamid Noury one of the executioners of 30,000 political prisoners in the 1988 massacre in Iran’s regime prisons across the country.
In his testimony, Majid Saheb Jam, a former political prisoner who spent 17 years in Iran’s prisons, described on the atrocities that took place in the regime’s horrific prisons. During Iran’s 1988 massacre, Saheb Jam was in Gohardasht prison.
Saheb Jam said that in early 1988, he was transferred from Evin prison to Gohardasht. In 1986, prison authorities were classifying prisoners based on their MEK stance. Those who stood firm in their support for the Iranian opposition were transferred to Gohardasht.
Upon their arrival at Gohardasht, the prisoners were immediately tortured. Among the guards, Saheb Jam saw Hamid Noury. “I was surprised to see him there,” he said. Saheb Jam had previously seen Noury in Evin prison, where Noury was seen taking prisoners to the torture chambers.
On the morrow of arriving in Gohardasht, Saheb Jam and the other prisoners who had come from Evin were interrogated. “The prison authorities wanted to determine which prisoners were standing firm [in their support for the MEK],” Saheb Jam said.
On July 29, 1988, the Friday Prayers sermons were broadcast in the prison, saying prisoners should not be tolerated in prisons. “After that, Davoud Lashgari took us to the main rooms, where he asked our names, particulars, & our crime. This determined our fate,” Saheb Jam said.
Hossein Ali Nayyeri, head of Revolutionary Courts, arrived at the prison. “[Nayyeri] was there to make a serious decision,” Saheb Jam said. Nayyeri was one of four regime officials who constituted the “Death Commission,” a group tasked with deciding the prisoners’ fates.
Other members of the commission included current regime president Ebrahim Raisi and former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi.
“We also heard that on July 30 & 31, several prisoners were taken to a warehouse & executed,” Saheb Jam said. The warehouse, known as the “Death Hall,” was where prisoners were gathered for the executions during the 1988 massacre.
As one group of inmates were hanged, prison authorities forced others to watch until it became their turn to have the noose thrown around their neck.
On Aug 6, 1988, Saheb Jam was placed before the Death Commission. “I recognized Nayyeri, [Morteza] Eshraghi, Raisi, [Esmail] Shoushtari, and another person that I later learned was Pourmohammadi,” he said.
Saheb Jam was then transferred to the “Death Corridor.” “This is where I saw Hamid Abbasi [Noury] for the first time. He came out of the courthouse and stood in the middle of the corridor and read names from a paper,” Saheb Jam said.
“I lost some of my best friends that day, people who were with me that morning and had been sent to the Death Commission,” he said. Saheb Jam then named several prisoners who were executed on the same day. “They died because they stood firm on their support for the MEK,” he said.
“[Mohsen Mohammad Bagher] was paralyzed… he went into the line of execution with crutches,” Saheb Jam said. Another prisoner, Nasser Mansouri, was taken to the death hall on a stretcher because he was paralyzed from the neck down.
“I kept watching as Hamid Abbasi [Noury] called the prisoners in series & handed them over to the executioners,” Saheb Jam said. “[Noury] held a box of pastries & offered sweets to prison guards as they passed by… They were celebrating the executions with sweets.”
“I could see [Hamid Noury] from under my blindfold… he told us to turn back. He knew we weren’t supposed to be executed, but he wanted to torment us. He told one of the guards to take us back to the ward and wait for our turn tomorrow,” Saheb Jam said.
On August 13, Saheb Jam was taken to the Death Corridor again, where he witnessed more prisoners being taken for execution. “They were in a rush,” Saheb Jam said. “Noury called prisoners, asked their name & father’s name, & took them to the Death Hall in groups of 10 to 15.”
A replica of Gohardasht prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, indicating the specific locations of the “Death Hall” and where the political prisoners were executed during the 1988 massacre.
Saheb Jam: My father passed away in 1992, and I received furlough for his funeral. Upon returning to prison, they said you recruited a college student to join the MEK and sentenced me to death. It eventually changed to 9 years in prison, and I was finally released in 1999.
Stockholm, Sweden — Coinciding to the trial of the executioner of Hamid Noury in Albania, freedom-loving Iranians, supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK), held a rally in front of the Stockholm Courthouse.
Supporters of the Iranian resistance declared their solidarity with the martyrs of the November 2019 nationwide uprising. They also stressed to continue of seeking Justice for the martyrs of the 1988 massacre and their families.
Iranians, MEK supporters and relatives of the 1988 massacre martyrs called for the prosecution of the mullahs’ regime leader supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the mass murderer Ebrahim Raisi, the executioner of the 1988 massacre, in international courts for crimes against humanity.
Also, the Iranians were following the testimony of Majid Sahib Jame in the Durrës court session and the ceremony in Ashraf 3 via satellite.
At the same time, MEK members in Ashraf 3 held a gathering in memory of the victims of the 1988 massacre. During this ceremony, many political prisoners spoke and retold accounts of the atrocities that took place in Iran’s prisons. It is worth noting that hundreds of former political prisoners are now in Ashraf 3, and many of them were prepared to testify in the Stockholm court. Due to limitations in time, only a few were accepted as plaintiffs in the case.
Read more: https://english.mojahedin.org/i/hamid-nouri-trial-ahmad-majid-saheb-jam-1988-massacre-20211111
