A Swedish court docket is about to ship its verdict within the high-profile trial of Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian jail official accused of collaborating within the mass execution and torture of political prisoners within the Eighties.
Nouri, a former jail official, is charged with warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity for his function within the killing of not less than 5,000 prisoners throughout Iran, alleged to have been ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini.
Thursday’s verdict would observe court docket proceedings which have been operating since August 2021. If discovered responsible, Nouri faces a most sentence of life in jail.
First trial of Iranian for jail purge
Nouri was arrested at a Stockholm airport in 2019 after Iranian dissidents in Sweden filed police complaints in opposition to him.
The proceedings mark the primary time an Iranian jail official has gone on trial for the 1988 purge of prisoners.
The executions had been revenge for assaults carried out by exiled dissident group the Individuals’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) in direction of the tip of the Iran-Iraq warfare of 1980-88.
Nouri has argued that he was on depart through the interval when the killings passed off and stated he labored in one other jail.
“I hope these fingers will likely be cleared… with the assistance of God,” Nouri informed the court docket on the final day of hearings on Might 4.
A number of witnesses testified that they acknowledged Nouri as being current through the executions.
Strained Swedish-Iranian relations
The trial has soured ties between Sweden and Iran and has led to worries about reprisals in opposition to Western prisoners held by the Islamic republic.
Iran is but to acknowledge the killings and referred to as Nouri’s trial “unlawful.”
“Sweden ought to present the grounds for the discharge of Nouri as quickly as doable,” Iranian International Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani stated on Wednesday.
Swedish regulation permits courts to strive Swedish residents and different nationals for crimes in opposition to worldwide regulation dedicated overseas.
dvv/sms (AFP, Reuters)