Swedish court to rule on Hamid Nouri appeal
A Swedish appeals court is due to deliver a verdict today on alleged war criminal Hamad Nouri.
Following his arrest in Sweden in 2019, Nouri was tried for war crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction. He was found guilty in July 2022 and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the mass execution and torturing of political prisoners in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War.
Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the execution of all prisoners that sympathized with the leftist opposition. Perhaps as many as 5,000 political inmates were interrogated and killed in secret tribunals and buried in mass graves. These tribunals, presided over by four judges, became known as the “Death Committee.” One of the judges was the current Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi.
Nouri was the deputy prosecutor at an Iranian prison at the time and was found guilty of torturing and killing inmates. The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the verdict, stating that it was politically motivated and that it has no legal validity.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since the arrest of Nouri. In 2022, Iran has executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident and arrested a Swedish national who had been on holiday in Tehran. The situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon, as today’s appeal court verdict is expected to uphold Nouri’s life sentence. In retaliation, Tehran could sentence the arrested Swedish national to a lengthy prison term or even arrest additional Swedish nationals in Iran.
