Iran summons the Swedish envoy over a former official’s prison term

TEHRAN: Iran says it summoned Sweden’s ambassador in response to a request from Swedish prosecutors for the life imprisonment of a former Iranian official.

The arrest and prosecution of Hamid Noury, 61, in Tehran late Sunday were “strongly condemned” by the foreign ministry, which demanded for the procedures to be halted and his release.

Noury, who has been on trial in Stockholm since August, faces allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the deaths of a significant number of detainees in the 1980s, according to the court.

Noury’s lawyers have disputed that he was present at the alleged killings. Noury was detained at Stockholm airport in November 2019.

According to the prosecution, the detainees were members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an exiled opposition party that Tehran regards as a “terrorist group” and has outlawed since 1981.

The MEK initially supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which deposed the Shah of Iran. However, it quickly fell out with Tehran, backed Saddam Hussein of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq conflict, and was implicated in a series of assaults in the early 1980s.

Following a trial session on Thursday in which prosecutors asked for the maximum punishment of life imprisonment for Noury, Swedish ambassador Mattias Lentz was called.

In a tweet, Sweden’s foreign office recommended its people avoid non-essential travel to the Islamic republic “due to the security situation.”

Noury is being tried in Sweden on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which permits Swedish courts to address serious matters like war crimes regardless of where the crimes were committed.

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