Former assistant prosecutor in Gohardasht prison, Hamid Noury (also known as Hamid Abbasi) has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Swedish court on charges of being involved in a crime against humanity in the case of the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners.
It is now clear to Swedish prosecutors that all the testimonies given by dozens of witnesses in court against Noury, especially witnesses from supporters or members of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK), were undeniable evidence of Noury’s role in crimes against humanity.
It is noteworthy that the organized Iranian opposition MEK, which had already launched a global campaign against the 1988 massacre with the justice movement, has since provided documents about the role of Hamid Noury and other criminals like Nasserian, Lashgari, and current Iranian regime President Ebrahim Raisi for their role in the massacre.
According to the court, the evidence presented before the arrest of Hamid Noury in Sweden by witnesses to the massacre is considered to be more credible and reliable than the evidence presented after his arrest. That is because there is no longer any doubt to the court that these documents were presented or prepared before the arrest of the accused.
Three historical documents of Hamid Noury’s trial
These are the three most critical previous documents cited by prosecutors:
— Mahmoud Royaei’s interview with Simay Azadi TV, the Iranian opposition satellite television channel. This interview is from 1999, some 23 years before Hamid Nouri was arrested. Mahmoud Royaei states that Hamid Abbasi (Noury) lined up the prisoners and took them to the execution site in that interview.
— Another document is a book published by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in 2000. Several times, it is stated that Hamid Noury was involved in the 1988 massacre in Gohardasht Prison and personally participated in it.
— The third document mentioned by the prosecutors in court is the book of Mr. Hossein Farsi, a former prisoner and a witness to the 1988 massacre. He mentioned in his book that Hamid Noury many times and on many days was involved in the massacre.
Together with the testimony of dozens of witnesses who testified during more than 90 court hearings, these three documents leave no doubt for the court that Hamid Noury, who is the same as Hamid Abbasi, played a profound and influential role in the massacre of prisoners.
A witness from the “Death Hall”
However, among the documents presented during the trial is the shocking testimony of another witness named Asghar Mehdizadeh, who was also an eyewitness to the massacre and a witness in the court. Mehdizadeh testified that Noury, with the Nasserian and a group of other guards present in the Gohardasht Hosseinieh, which had now been turned into a death hall, forced prisoners onto stools, and put ropes around their necks and executed them in groups.
The meaning of requesting life imprisonment for Noury
However, the Swedish prosecutor’s request for a severe sentence (life imprisonment) for Hamid Noury was based on the fact that he is accused of a heinous crime against humanity due to the high number of victims.
Therefore, in addition to the crime against humanity, he must be tried and punished according to paragraph two, so he is not responsible for his crime except for life imprisonment.
But we must not forget that the final conviction of Hamid Noury is not the end. Rather, the ultimate goal of the justice movement, which began immediately after the revelation of the massacre of prisoners in August 1988, with a letter from the Iranian Resistance leader Mr. Massoud Rajavi to the United Nations Secretary-General, about the killing of prisoners, is to identify all perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Therefore, if the executioner Hamid Noury’s sentence is finalized, it should be used as a ground to end impunity for the Iranian regime’s leaders.
