On Saturday, June 15, 2024, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (of the right-wing Moderate Party) announced in a statement the release of Hamid Nouri, an assistant prosecutor and deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht Prison, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in Sweden. In his statement, Kristersson also announced that Johan Flodros, a Swedish citizen who had been in Iran since April 2022 and was facing the death penalty, and Saeed Azizi, an Iranian-Swedish dual citizen arrested in November 2023, were on a flight to Sweden. Simultaneously, the Islamic government announced that “Hamid Nouri has been released and will arrive in Iran within hours.” A few hours later, Hamid Nouri disembarked at Tehran airport, where he was greeted by his criminal colleagues with a wreath around his neck.
Hamid Nouri was involved in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, during which thousands of political and ideological prisoners were killed by the criminal order of Khomeini and the “Death Committee.” Nouri, known by the alias “Abbasi,” was the deputy
prosecutor at Gohardasht Prison. Survivors of Gohardasht Prison and the families of executed prisoners testified that Hamid Nouri was a deputy prosecutor and a colleague of “Nasirian” at this prison, where widespread killings of political prisoners occurred.
On Saturday, November 9, 2019, Hamid Nouri arrived in Sweden on a Tehran-Stockholm flight at Arlanda Airport. The Swedish prosecutor’s office issued a temporary arrest warrant for Nouri. He was tried in 90 sessions attended by witnesses, families of the victims, and political prisoners, with the presence of defense lawyers and a jury. Finally, on July 14, 2022, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Hamid Nouri to life imprisonment for his participation in the mass executions of opponents and political prisoners at Gohardasht Prison in 1988. The Swedish District and Appeals Courts confirmed this sentence, condemning the criminal to life imprisonment.
The release of Hamid Nouri, the former deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht slaughterhouse, amid public shock and disbelief, has sparked a wave of protests and dissatisfaction among political activists, human rights organizations, and humanitarian groups in Sweden, especially among Iranians and the families of the victims of this criminal and the supporting Islamic regime. Simultaneously, this dissatisfaction has also led to condemnation of the Swedish right-wing government and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for this dirty deal.
The Swedish judiciary rightly sentenced Hamid Nouri to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity for ordering the massacre of political prisoners. This sentence was a significant achievement for the justice-seeking movement against crimes and human rights violations, obtained through the considerable sacrifice of protesting and fighting Iranians, victims of the Islamic Republic’s crimes, and courageous lawyers, judges, and human rights defenders in long and exhausting trials against the killer and experienced prosecutor of the Islamic Republic. The Swedish public, progressive people in Europe, the world, and Iran, regarded this trial as an unprecedented action in the life of the Islamic Republic and praised it. Nouri’s rightful condemnation in public opinion was considered a trial of the murderous and oppressive Islamic government in history and will remain as one of the outstanding trials of the 21st century against a criminal regime ruling Iran and will not be easily forgotten.
However, the Swedish executive branch, headed by the deal-making Prime Minister representing the interests of big capitalists, under the pretext of freeing two innocent Swedish citizens whose only crime was traveling to Iran and who were arrested without any reason or evidence for ransom from the Swedish government, released a criminal whose hands were stained with the blood of tens and hundreds of fighting and freedom-loving people. This criminal was convicted in a reputable court with the presence of a judge, lawyer, jury, and undeniable evidence of his crimes. The Prime Minister’s name will be recorded in history as a dirty dealer and a mockery of this country’s democratic laws. The Swedish Prime Minister and the executive branch sacrificed the justice and humanitarianism of this country, which is the result of the long struggle of the working class and the left and freedom-loving front, to the political and economic goals of the capitalists and the party and class they represent, at the altar of the terrorist and murderous Islamic regime.
This is not the first time a European government has entered into such an unfair deal with the Islamic regime. The release of Hamid Nouri in Sweden is the second instance within a year that EU countries have handed over a terrorist-ambassador of the Islamic Republic, Assadollah Assadi, as a ransom gift to Iran’s murderous rulers after Belgium did so in July 2023. This practically gives the Islamic regime more leeway for terrorism, kidnapping of Western citizens, and ransom-taking in Europe and beyond.
Previously, the US and German governments also submitted to the Islamic Republic’s hostage-taking, handing over criminals convicted in their courts in exchange for the release of their citizens who were taken hostage with fabricated charges. The situation reached the point where even the UK government officially paid cash ransom to the Iranian regime for the release of Nazanin Zaghari. The compliance of these governments, including Sweden, with the Islamic Republic’s demands, shows that they find the regime’s survival beneficial to their current and future interests and therefore tolerate its defiance. EU leaders and the US government have repeatedly stated that their goal in pressuring the Iranian regime is not to change it but to change its behavior. No one has forgotten the disgusting scene of the collective presence of female members of the Swedish cabinet in Islamic hijab in the presence of the Islamic Republic’s leaders in Tehran, while courageous and free-spirited Iranian women were removing the compulsory hijab, paving the way for the nascent Zhina revolutionary movement.
Now, it is the duty of freedom-loving Iranians, progressive and socialist forces, the left front, and supporters of judicial justice in Sweden to organize their united voice and action against this illegitimate, inhuman, and unethical action of the right-wing Swedish government in dealing with the criminal Islamic regime and the release of a murderer convicted of crimes against humanity in this country’s court and to strive for joint protest and action.
