{"id":252350,"date":"2021-11-30T12:27:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T17:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=252350"},"modified":"2023-02-02T01:21:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T00:21:13","slug":"iran-culture-of-impunity-to-blame-for-nourys-impudence-in-sweden-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/iran-culture-of-impunity-to-blame-for-nourys-impudence-in-sweden-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran: Culture of Impunity To Blame for Noury\u2019s Impudence in Sweden Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hamid-noury-ebrahim-raisi-iran-executions\"<\/p>\n

In three days of testimony in a Stockholm courtroom that began on November 23, 2021, Hamid Noury<\/a>, a prison guard promoted to \u201cassistant public prosecutor\u201d in political prisons, who served as an interrogator, henchman, and executioner in some of the most notorious and terrifying prisons in Iran, inadvertently verified many truths in his trial for crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

About 20 former political prisoners have testified as to his intimate involvement in the 1988 massacre since August, and hundreds of others took part in rallies and conferences coinciding with each trial session.<\/p>\n

Although Noury has verbally denied culpability, the subtext of the comments he made at court may easily be regarded as a tacit admission of guilt. The former official at Gohardasht Prison made desperate efforts to deny that that prison even exists, that he was on duty during the period in question, and that executions took place on the scale alleged. None of these claims can be taken seriously in light of the preponderance of the evidence.<\/p>\n

The brunt of Noury\u2019s \u201ctestimony\u201d, given without any remorse, consisted of malicious attacks on the Mujahedin<\/a>-e Khalq (MEK). Noury rehashed a litany of false accusations, often repeated and spewed out against the MEK by a host of paid-for agents of the regime for which he works, over the past decades.<\/p>\n

The similarity between Noury\u2019s lies and these claims reaffirms that the source of all these absurd claims and lies in the Iranian regime\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security<\/a> (MOIS) and its oppressive propaganda apparatus.<\/p>\n

Hamid Noury maintained that if he even mentions the PMOI by their official name rather than the derogatory name the regime favors, he would be arrested upon his return to Iran. He stressed that the judiciary and its head do not joke around, and despite his serving the regime for 10 years in the prison system, he would still face danger. He was unwittingly testifying to the underlying support for the MEK in Iranian society, and the paranoia and fear that it stirs in the murderous rulers of Iran.<\/p>\n

Over 30,000 political prisoners were executed over the course of about three months based on Ruhollah Khomeini\u2019s order<\/a> for the regime to \u201cannihilate the enemies of Islam immediately.\u201d That estimate is not seriously in dispute, although at least one witness to the massacre issued a statement during the course of the Noury trial which suggested that the actual death toll might be even higher.<\/p>\n

The number of death could be much higher, as in some prisons and jails, entire wards were emptied by the \u201cdeath commissions,\u201d leaving no one to account for how many people were taken away to be buried in secret mass graves.<\/p>\n

Muddying the waters even further, Tehran has ordered a number of construction projects on the sites of those mass graves, as part of a cover-up that also consists of routine harassment of victims\u2019 relatives who still reside inside Iran. This cover-up makes it imperative for the international community to intervene by initiating broad investigations into the massacre and its culprits. In recent years, these calls to action have been echoed by the likes of Amnesty International and certain United Nations human rights experts.<\/p>\n

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1988 Massacre of political prisoners in Iran<\/div><\/div>
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