{"id":249062,"date":"2021-10-15T13:06:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T18:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=249062"},"modified":"2023-02-02T01:30:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T00:30:24","slug":"witnesses-against-iran-prison-official-reinforce-calls-for-broader-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/witnesses-against-iran-prison-official-reinforce-calls-for-broader-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnesses Against Iran Prison Official Reinforce Calls for Broader Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stockholm-Rally-October-12-2021-3\"
MEK supporters protest in front of the court<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2019, Swedish authorities arrested the former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury after he arrived in the country as a tourist. The arrest was explained as an application of \u201cuniversal jurisdiction<\/a>,\u201d a principle that allows perpetrators of the most serious violations of international law to be prosecuted in any country, regardless of the defendant\u2019s nationality and the location of those crimes. Noury officially went on trial in August on charges of war crimes and mass murder, but the verdict and sentencing are not expected until April.<\/p>\n

Noury was in charge of personnel at Gohardasht Prison during the summer of 1988 when regime authorities implemented a fatwa<\/a> by the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, which led to the mass execution of 30,000 political prisoners. In his position, Noury played a direct role in some of those killings, as well as in the underlying torture and interrogation of political prisoners. Around 90 percent of the victims of the 1988 massacre were members or supporters of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, and any affiliation with the MEK was deemed sufficient grounds for summary execution.<\/p>\n

Witnesses in Noury\u2019s trial described him as having effectively confirmed this himself, telling them at the time, \u201cIf we wanted to carry out [Khomeini\u2019s] order, we would have to kill half the population.\u201d Noury reportedly used this as an explanation for why some of the inmates in the Gohardasht political wards remained alive after the most severe wave of executions, but also exerted pressure on them over their apparently narrow escape from the gallows.<\/p>\n

Ahmad Ebrahimi, a witness who served 10 years as a political prisoner beginning in 1981, further quoted Noury as saying, \u201cIf any of you makes a mistake, then we will execute all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Embracing Iran\u2019s Raisi Amplifies Threat Posed by His Regime<\/div><\/div>
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