Kenneth Lewis (Sweden), Lawyer, Representing the PMOI, addressed the third day of the Free Iran World Summit on July 3, 2023. The summit was under the title: Prosecute Iran’s Regime Leaders for Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide.
Kenneth Lewis: Prosecute the Clerical Regime Leaders in Iran
The full text of Mr. Kenneth Lewis’ speech follows:
Brothers and sisters, and people of the Resistance know what I mean when I say brothers and sisters, and I say also, ladies and gentlemen.
Brothers and sisters are the people who are fighting this regime every day from morning to evening, and I’ve seen it. I’ve had the honor and privilege to represent the NCRI and the People’s Mujahedin in this trial. I might add, I’ve also been representing them and trying to help them as a lawyer since 2004 when I went down to Ashraf number one to get the Americans to release them. I was part of the team that got them off the European Union terror list, and now finally, finally, we have a historic trial in a Swedish court where one of the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre has been on trial, and the trial is still going on.
The last speaker spoke about the United Nations setting up a fact-finding commission. It’s not a bad idea. I can tell you that the investigation presented in the Stockholm District Court is the best fact-finding commission that you can imagine. In this trial, which in the district court went on for 92 days, the investigation is more than 11,000 pages, including the books which Madam Rajavi showed pictures of and spoke of. The books were the names of the victims of the Mujahedin who were executed in 1988. These are part of the record of the Stockholm District Court.
The material created by the JVMI, it’s a wonderful material. It’s also included in the record of the Stockholm District Court. The books written by members of the Mujahedin in Ashraf are also in the record of this court where they point out not only this little fellow, Hamid Noury, but Raisi himself, Khamenei, who was the President of Iran at that time, and shares responsibility with Raisi, Nayeri, and all the rest of the names that you will see.
The JVMI said that they’ve identified 70 people. I’m sure we can find a list that’s much longer. You’ve already heard about Khomeini’s fatwa and what it meant. A fatwa normally should be a religious opinion. This was an order. There’s another word ’Hokm’, which we discussed in the district court. But okay, it doesn’t matter. A fatwa made by the Supreme Leader becomes an order. It’s not just an opinion. And what does he say? Anyone who remains faithful to the people’s Mujahedin of Iran and who is in our prisons shall be executed. Quite simple.
And someone quoted also the memoirs of Montazeri, which we received much later, where he tells about the letter that was sent to Khomeini to ask, “What do you mean? Should we have some kind of real procedure? What about people who have received a 15-year sentence? Are they suddenly going to be sentenced to death?”
And he just said, “Kill them all, was the answer.”
This is the information that we have had in the Stockholm district court. And this information is better than what any fact-finding commission is ever going to be able to find. Because we had also 34 plaintiffs who testified. The court moved to Duress in Albania to be able to listen to the absolutely decisive evidence testimony presented by members of the Mujahedin who had survived the massacre and who were living in Ashraf 3.
Two weeks, the whole district court was, I think, one, two, three, seven, eight people plus interpreters and all the rest of it. It was a pretty big operation in Albania.
You know, it says in where I’m presented that I represent 10 clients amongst the plaintiffs. That’s absolutely true. Formally, I represent only 10. In reality, I represent this whole movement. And let me tell you what this movement did during this trial. You saw my client go around in Ashraf 3 in the fantastic museum that they built, which is reproducing the “Death Corridor” in Gohardasht prison.
But not only did they do that, they made a film so that the court could understand what it looked like. And we showed that film in the court, and they were very happy to see that.
But that still wasn’t sufficient. So what did my clients do? They made a model of the whole prison of Gohardasht, which the court, we showed to the court when we were in Albania. And they asked us, please transport it to Stockholm so that when everyone testifies, they can go to the model created by the Mujahedin just so we understand where they were in the prison.
That’s an unbelievable effort that’s been made by my clients in Ashraf 3 to make this trial the success that it has been.
We have to understand also, the regime has not been passive about it. It’s very strange because before Raisi was elected President, they were rather quiet about this case. We don’t really know why. As soon as Raisi came to power, he knew that in this trial, evidence was being presented every single day that implicated not only him but the whole regime. And as a result of that, you will notice that the Iranian press has become more and more hysterical.
And we’ve seen recently documents which some hacker group in Iran got hold of that this trial which is still going on is a priority for the regime to do everything possible to try to discredit the Swedish legal system, for instance, and the participation of the Mujahedin and so on and so forth.
And they say that Hamid Noury has been tortured and hasn’t been given a fair trial. This is so hypocritical. From the evidence that we’ve heard, we know what torture was. And go to the museum in Ashraf 3 and you’ll see a clear picture of what real torture is. He’s never been touched, this man. But he didn’t get his tea sometime and he was unable to buy new glasses.
It’s so hypocritical to say they also claim that he’s not getting a fair trial. A fair trial.
He himself testified for more than five days. He had two lawyers in the first court. He has two new lawyers in the court of appeals. Five days. When the people who went in front of the death commission had five minutes and they claim that he doesn’t have justice in the Swedish court.
Now, this trial is, as everyone has said, it’s not just historical. It is a step forward in realizing what is written on the wall there: “Prosecute the clerical regime leaders.”
The evidence presented in this trial is quite adequate to be able to put Ebrahim Raisi, Nayeri, Khamenei, all of them, and the 70 that the JVMI has, we can put them all on trial because these were people who saw them and knew what they did.
Whatever happens in this trial, you know, there are all kinds of things happening. They may even… the regime thinks they’re going to be able to exchange someone for Noury, just as they succeeded in doing in Belgium. The truth is we don’t really care about it. It wouldn’t be good, of course. He should serve his sentence.
The important thing is nevertheless, this trial happened. The evidence has been presented and we know not only that Hamid Noury is guilty, we know that all of these leaders are guilty and one day we hope that that evidence can be used to get there. Thank you.
