The Swedish Prosecutor Authority has published the indictment and documents related to the case of Iranian agent Hamid Nouri regarding his role in the 1988 massacre. Here we will go over the background to the criminal charges and the massacre.

The Massacre of Political Prisoners in 1988

In 1988, Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the execution of all those held in Iranian prisons who were members or supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Thus, the prisons began to assemble death commissions, which held show trials for 30,000 MEK supporters and executed them in quick succession.

Nouri, a retired Revolutionary Guards officer, was one of the agents in this massacre, responsible for 444 deaths, by selecting the prisoners that would go before the death commissions, transferring prisoners to the trial and to their execution, and even taking part in the hangings. His name was included in the MEK book “Massacre of Political Prisoners” and he was also mentioned in the memoirs of many political prisoners at the time.

The indictment states: “During the period August 27, 1988 – September 6, 1988, Hamid Nouri in the Gohardasht (Rajaei Shahr) prison in Karaj, Iran, as an assistant to the Deputy Prosecutor or in another similar position/role, together and in concert/consultation with other perpetrators, intentionally deprived the lives of a very large number of prisoners whose ideological/religious beliefs were found to be in conflict with the theocratic state of Iran.”

The indictment advises that the massacre was committed after the MEK forced Khomeini to accept the ceasefire in the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq, which he considered a significant embarrassment. This, the prosecutor said violates Articles 75, 85, and 147 of the Geneva Convention IV relating to civilians with special protection under international humanitarian law

The indictment read: “The violation of international law is to be regarded as serious because a very large number of people have been executed, tortured, and subjected to inhuman treatment in extremely cruel forms.”

The Arrest of Hamid Nouri

His ex-stepson-in-law, Heresh Sadegh Ayoubi, told the Swedish police and judiciary when Nouri was due to visit Sweden, saying that the IRGC agent would stay at his house. This resulted in Nouri being stopped briefly in 2018, but he evaded the officers’ questions. However, he was arrested on a trip in November 2019 by the War Crimes Unit (WCU) of the National Operations Department (NOA) of the Swedish Police.

To read more about the indictment and relevant documents, as explained by the Judiciary Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), click here.