– I went to the death committee four times, more than anyone else. This is what Iraj Mesdaghi says when news meets him in an apartment in Stockholm in October 2021. In the 80s, he was a prisoner in several Iranian prisons. It was in Gohardasht that he met what he calls the death committee. He says that the committee wanted him to sign a document in which he promised not to engage in politics if he was released. – I wrote it down and I survived, for a few hours. In the evening they took me back to the committee. He says he had to write a new statement. – Then I wrote two sentences: I condemn the Mujahedin and other groups working against the Islamic Republic of Iran. – What happened to people who answered incorrectly? – They were executed. Within a few minutes, they took them to the execution site. They were hung up. Mesdaghi has terrible things to tell. But still he effervesces, because he helped to trick one of the perpetrators into a trap. He is now imprisoned in Stockholm. Mesdaghi, who was expected to be convicted, was himself one of the witnesses. He should be right. On Thursday this week, Hamid Noury was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity and murder. The massacre of the clerical regime In 1988, the Iranian regime worked hard to remove all who were perceived as enemies of the regime. Several thousand political prisoners were put on so-called death commissions. Many of them belonged to the Marxist-inspired group of the People’s Mujahedin, who had previously collaborated with the ultra-religious on the revolution against the Shah Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Facts about the Mujahedin of the People The Mujahedin of the People (Mujahedin-e Khalq) was formed as an Islamic-Marxist group in Iran in the 1960s and has over the years used a number of names and abbreviations. The group is led by Maryam Rajavi, after her husband Masud Rajavi disappeared without a trace in 2003. He is wanted by Iraq for crimes against humanity. According to Norwegian and international experts, there is an extreme culture of obedience in the movement, which has little or no support in Iran. In the 1970s, MeK was behind several attacks and assassinations against American targets in Iran. In 1979, they helped bring Ayatollah Khomeini to power, but later smoked with him and continued their actions until they were forced into exile and settled in Iraq. In the 1980s, they fought on Iraq’s side in the war against Iran, and in the 1990s, they helped Saddam Hussein put down Kurdish and Shia Muslim uprisings in Iraq. The group was long on both the US list of terrorist organizations, but after extensive lobbying succeeded in being removed from the list in 2012. The group is currently based in Albania, after being expelled from Iraq in 2013. Many former supporters and members have recent decades broken with the group and believes the previous political movement has become a sect. Source: NTB No one knows exactly how many were killed, but the estimate for Amnesty International is around 5,000 people. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was Iran’s undisputed leader after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And the one who gave the order to execute the political prisoners. Here, Khomeini is depicted on May 13, 1988, just before the fatwa that led to the prison massacres. Photo: Sayaad / AP Iraj Mesdaghi was among the many who ended up in prison. There he met Hamid Noury, he tells news. But Noury did not use his real last name, Mesdaghi first knew him as Hamid Abbasi. The first time he met Abbasi was when he and several friends were tortured at the same time. – It was a tunnel where the guards stood on each side. They had electrical cables. They kicked you and hit you so hard. Abbasi was there. Mesdaghi met Abbasi on a number of occasions. Mesdaghi says he sent people to execution. – When we left the death committee, we were in a long corridor. We sat there. Hamid Noury came to the death corridor. He called out their names. They were lined up. He told a guard to take them to the “unit”. There was a code between them that meant taking them to the execution site, Mesdaghi says. It was a coincidence that revealed the man’s real name, he says. – My friend was beaten by Hamid Abbasi. When he tortured him, the identity card fell down. He could see that his real name is Hamid Noury. He told me that. Mesdaghi smiles. – I wrote it down, and therefore he was arrested. It was a miracle. After 31 years. Iraj Mesdaghi has collaborated with a number of people to lure Hamid Noury to Sweden. Photo: Lokman Ghorbani / news Tricked to Sweden Iraj Mesdaghi collaborated with Hamid Noury’s son-in-law to lure him to Sweden, where he could be arrested. The son-in-law originally had a bad relationship with his father-in-law, but still managed to fool him with promises of luxury holidays and access to young women. Mesdaghi shows news a Youtube video of Noury driving a car in Iran while he sings and is happy. – He listens to the voice of Marjan, a famous singer who was banned in Iran. She was a political prisoner in Evin Prison. We showed him some pictures of girls and he thought he would meet them in Sweden. That’s why he sings. That’s why he’s so happy. – But it did not happen? – No, of course not. He was arrested on an Arlanda flight pass. He was arrested on the plane. Picture of Hamid Noury from Swedish police. Photo: TT NYHETSBYRÅN Denies criminal guilt Swedish investigators linked Noury to 110 murders between 30 July and 16 August 1988. Hamid Noury himself claims that Swedish police have taken the wrong man. He claimed in court that he worked in another prison and that he also had leave that summer. news spoke with Noury’s son Majid Noury who was in Stockholm when the trial started in October. He and his brother were not born in 1988, but they support his father and believe that the People’s Mujahedin is behind the prosecution of him. – My father is family-loving, kind and caring. We are his family. We love him and he loves us. This man was standing alone against a terrorist group. Majid Noury and her brother were in Stockholm District Court in October to follow the trial against their father, Hamid Noury. Photo: Lokman Gorbani / news Iraj Mesdaghi, on the other hand, remembers him well from 1988. He thinks it is gratifying that Noury was lured into a trap with promises of luxury and young women. – But this is the real face of the Iranian executioner. This is the real face of Iranian law enforcement. All good, beautiful things are forbidden to the people, but not to themselves.
ttn-69
Revenge on the torturer after 31 years – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
