Swedish Appeals Court Confirms Life Sentence for Hamid Nouri

The Swedish appeals court on Tuesday, December 19, upheld the life sentence of Hamid Nouri, accused of involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s. Nouri, who was known by the alias Hamid Abbasi and was a former deputy prosecutor in the Islamic Republic's judiciary, was arrested in November 2019 by a Swedish court order. On July 13 of last year, after 93 sessions of hearings in the Stockholm District Court, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay compensation to the families of the executed prisoners for his role in the massacre of prisoners in 1988. Although there is a possibility that Nouri's lawyers may appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court of Sweden, the confirmation of his sentence has been welcomed by opponents of the Islamic Republic, with some celebrating in Stockholm. Nouri's arrest and trial have angered Iranian officials and have strained relations between Sweden and the Islamic Republic. In April of this year, the Iranian government arrested Johan Flodros, a Swedish employee of the European Union's diplomatic service. Masoud Setayesh, spokesperson for the Islamic Republic's judiciary, announced on Wednesday, November 8, that the case of this Swedish citizen has been sent to court for indictment. The Swedish prosecution accused Nouri, known as Hamid Abbasi, of deliberately taking the lives of a large number of prisoners who were members or supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization and a group of leftist members or supporters during the summer of 1988 while serving as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor or a similar position at Gohardasht Prison. The Islamic Republic claims that Nouri was deprived of basic rights during his detention, such as the right to contact his family and access medical care, and that he was tortured during this time, allegations that Sweden has denied. Iraj Masdagh, a political prisoner from the 1980s, previously emphasized in an interview with Voice of America the difference in the nature of Nouri's case for the Iranian government, stating that the highest judicial officials of the Islamic Republic, including Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the thirteenth government, are implicated in this case.