Iran slams Swedish life sentence for former official

A Swedish court’s rejection of an appeal by a former Iranian jail director against a life sentence for mass murders in 1988 was criticised as “unacceptable” by Tehran on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, a Swedish appeals court maintained the prison sentence imposed in July last year on Hamid Noury, 62, for “grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder.”

“It is regrettable that the Swedish court, without considering the standards of a fair trial, decided to issue such a destructive verdict,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

He condemned the judgment as “fundamentally unacceptable” and said Iran would “use all legal avenues at its disposal” to secure Noury’s release.

Noury was arrested in November 2019 at Stockholm Airport after Iranian dissidents in Sweden filed police charges against him.

The case involves the execution of at least 5,000 inmates across Iran to punish attacks carried out by the rebel People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) near the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Noury was an assistant prosecutor in a prison in Tehran at the time, but he said he was on leave throughout the relevant period.

Sweden tried Noury on its universal jurisdiction principle, which permits it to try a case regardless of where the alleged offence occurred.

There have been concerns that the case could have repercussions for the fate of Swedish prisoners in Iran, including EU diplomat Johan Floderus, who has been held for more than 600 days.

Floderus, 33, has been charged with the capital offence of “corruption on earth”. He was detained at Tehran airport in April 2022 on his return from a trip abroad while Noury’s original trial was underway.

Another Swedish citizen, dual national Ahmad Reza Jalali, is already on death row in Iran after he was detained in 2016 and sentenced to death on espionage charges.

Swedish media have speculated about the possibility of a prisoner swap between Sweden and Iran. Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom has declined to comment.