Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prison official who was involved in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, took to the stand during his own trial at a Swedish court to give his own testimony on Tuesday. With highly contradicted remarks, Noury has shown his true criminal nature.

Noury was arrested in Sweden in 2019 on a visit to the country. After almost two years of investigations, his trial began in August 2021 and is set to run until April 2022. So far, his trial has featured heart-breaking testimonies from survivors of the 1988 massacre. Of the 30,000 prisoners who were murdered during the summer of 1988, the majority were members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said, “Noury was a prison official at the time of the massacre in Gohardahst prison. He was known among prisoners as Hamid Abbasi. Noury had initially claimed he had been mistaken for someone else. But on Tuesday’s hearing, he acknowledged his identity.”

Beginning his testimony, Noury praised some of the Iranian regime’s criminals, including former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, the current president Ebrahim Raisi, and officials Assadollah Lajevardi and Qassem Soleimani.

Raisi played a major role during the 1988 massacre as one of four officials assigned to Tehran’s ‘Death Commission’, a panel of judges who sentenced prisoners to death. Raisi rose to the presidential role this year when he was selected by the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during a sham election that most Iranians boycotted.

Speaking of Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force who was known for his crimes across the Middle East, Noury said that when one of the trial witnesses called Soleimani a criminal, he felt that the world would break on his head.

The NCRI said, “After Noury finished praising criminals, he began attacking the MEK, rehashing the Iranian regime’s allegations against its main democratic opposition group.”

He claimed that no one in Iran knows the MEK by their name and that instead, they use the term ‘Monafeghin’ which is a derogatory term only used by the regime to refer to the MEK.

During his testimony, Noury tried desperately to downplay his involvement in the 1988 massacre and deny that he was at Gohardasht prison at the time. However, he did admit that he had a role in some of the regime’s crimes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He confirmed that he participated in the oppression of the Kurdish ethnic minority group in 1979, and acknowledged that he requested himself to work in the prison service.

Describing himself in his role as a prison official, he narcissistically claimed that he was a ‘caring guard’ who ‘loved prisoners’ and ‘fulfilled their demands’. That is far from the truth as many witnesses who have already testified at the trial described him as a ‘sadistic torturer’ who harassed prisoners.

The NCRI said, “Mojtaba Akhgar, a former political prisoner, is one of the prisoners Noury personally tortured. According to Akhgar, Noury and his boss Mohammad Moghiseh, also known as Nasserian, tortured him weeks after the 1988 massacre.”

Naserian and Noury summoned Akhgar and other prisoners to the prison yard tied them to metal beds and flogged them until they were severely injured.

Noury stated that in 1991 he retired from prison work to set up a gravel and sand company. He denied the existence of Gohardasht prison and claimed that the 1988 massacre never happened, referring to it as a ‘ridiculous play’. Another one of his claims was that he was on leave in the summer of 1988, but many prisoners saw him in the prison and witnessed him transporting other prisoners to the ‘Death Commission’ and later, leading them to the gallows.

The NCRI said, “Noury’s controversial statements are a testament to his failure in defending his case. Noury is one of the regime officials involved in the 1988 massacre. Other criminals and main figures like Raisi should be prosecuted and held accountable for their role in the 1988 massacre, as their role in this crime against humanity is well documented.”