![\"Hamid-Noury-NCRI-Royaei-Iran-1988\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Hamid-Noury-NCRI-Royaei-Iran-1988.jpg\" "\\"Hamid-Noury-NCRI-Royaei-Iran-1988\\"")
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Tuesday marked the thirty-ninth session of\u202f<\/span>Hamid\u00a0Noury\u2019s\u00a0trial<\/span><\/a>, and an Iranian prison official was charged with participation in the\u00a0<\/span>1988 massacre<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of political prisoners. Noury was in\u00a0Gohardasht\u00a0prison at the time of the massacre. In 2019, he was incarcerated in Sweden.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The last five sessions of\u00a0Noury\u2019s\u00a0trial have been held in Albania. The location of the trial was transferred after 34 sessions in Sweden to Albania per prosecutors\u2019 requests, where there are thousands of members of the\u202f<\/span>Mujahedin-e Khalq<\/span><\/a>\u202f(MEK). The MEK members were the main target of the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners across Iran.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On Tuesday\u2019s session at the District Court of Durres,\u00a0<\/span>Mahmoud\u00a0Royaei<\/span><\/a>, a former political prisoner and a MEK member, testified. Royal spent ten years in prison. He is one of the survivors of the 1988 massacre.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn March 1986, I was transferred from Ghezelhesar to\u00a0Gohardasht\u00a0prison,\u201d he said.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn March 1988, a group of prisoners was brought from Kermanshah to\u00a0Gohardasht. We did not know why the authorities had done this, but we later found out that this was part of the plan to classify the prisoners, a plan that had been carried out by\u00a0Davoud\u00a0Lashgari,\u00a0Nasserian\u00a0[Mohammad\u00a0Moghiseh], and Hamid Abbasi [Noury] in February 1988,\u201d he said, underlining that the regime had planned for the execution for months.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI heard a conversation while I was in my cell,\u201d he said. According to\u00a0Davoud\u00a0Lashgari, a well-known torturer said: \u201cWe\u2019re classifying them.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt that time, I didn\u2019t understand what he meant. But when they separated Marxist prisoners from the rest of us and transferred several others to Ward 1, I understood,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Royaei also testified that Massoud Moghbeli had sent a message from his cell in April that his interrogator had told him: \u201cWe will soon finalize your situation, and there will be a purge.\u201d Moghbeli was executed during the 1988 massacre.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt around 10 or 11 pm on July 28, 1988, the prison authorities called out names of several prisoners in Ward 3 of\u00a0Gohardasht, where I was,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey asked them what their accusation was. As soon as they said they were supporters of the MEK, the guards severely beat them. One or two hours later, they were brought back,\u00a0bruised\u00a0and bloodied. The guards said, we\u2019ll come back for you on Saturday,\u201d he added.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn July 30, around noon, I was speaking to one of the inmates when we heard the news that there were some suspicious movements around one of the warehouses,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Like other witnesses at Hamid\u00a0Noury\u2019s\u00a0trial,\u00a0Royaei\u00a0had also seen guards taking hanging rope to the warehouse in wheelbarrows. This warehouse later became known as the \u201cDeath Hall,\u201d where prisoners were executed.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese series of events reminded us of the dark memories of 1981. Every night, hundreds of prisoners were executed while the authorities\u00a0shouted\u00a0\u2018Death to the\u00a0Monafegh\u2019 [the term the regime uses to refer to the MEK,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said. \u201cI personally thought that they can\u2019t execute everyone, and it would have a very heavy price for them. I thought that they were only executing the group of prisoners who had been transferred from Mashhad to\u00a0Gohardasht.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt around 8 pm, one of the guards came to our ward and asked, \u2018What was the name of Massoud\u00a0Ghahremani\u2019s\u00a0father?\u2019 I was puzzled at why he\u00a0said\u00a0\u2018was\u2019 and not \u2018is,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn July 31, I was talking with Mohammad Reza Hejazi. He had been transferred to\u00a0Gohardasht\u00a0from Karaj prison, and his sentence had finished a year ago,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said, \u201cI told Mohammad Reza that your sentence is finished. The prosecutor of Karaj has said that you will be released next week. He told me, \u2018Didn\u2019t you see the hanging ropes? Khomeini will not leave us alone.\u2019\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to\u00a0Roayei, a guard took Hejazi and several other prisoners soon after. These prisoners had come from Karaj prison. \u201cIt became clear to us that the first executions were from the prisoners of Karaj because\u202f<\/span>[Ebrahim] Raisi<\/span><\/a>\u202fwas the prosecutor of Karaj and personally knew them,\u201d\u00a0Roayei\u00a0said, referring to the key role played by the regime\u2019s current president, Ebrahim Raisi in the 1988 massacre.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Raisi was a member of the infamous \u201cDeath Commission,\u201d which identified staunch MEK supporters and sentenced them to death in kangaroo trials. These commissions were implementing a fatwa by the regime\u2019s then-Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, ordering the execution of all MEK members.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn August 1,\u00a0Lashgari\u00a0came to the ward and said all prisoners who had been sentenced to ten years or more in prison to come out,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said. \u201cI think we were 70 or more prisoners who had more than ten years. We were taken out of those cells and taken to another section. He asked our names and accusations. Anyone who said MEK supporter was separated from others.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThirty-five of us were taken to one of the sections on the first floor. The rest were sent to solitary confinement,\u201d\u00a0Royaei\u00a0said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Royaei: — People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 16, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
I came to Gohardasht prison in 1986 & I would see Hamid Abbasi & Nasserian from then on. I\u2019ve remembered his face ever since\u2026 In total I had seen Hamid Abbasi about five or six times from 1986 to the days of the Death Corridor.#1988Massacre<\/a>#Iran<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/qPsRvCWm6G<\/a><\/p>\n