Lawdan Bazargan told the Jerusalem Post Tuesday that she is delighted with the Stockholm-based trial of judicial official Hamid Noury who is charged with war crimes and murder for his role in the mass execution of Iranian political prisoners in 1988 in Iran.
Noury is on trial in Stockholm, Sweden for the mass murder of 136 Iranians in Gohardasht prison in Karaj, near Tehran, while he allegedly worked as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor.
Swedish prosecutor Kristina Lindhoff Carleson charged Noury with “intentionally taking the life of a very large number of prisoners sympathetic to or belonging to the People’s Mujahedin” (MEK) and dissidents critical of the Islamic Republic.
Lawdan Bazargan, whose brother Bijan was a young leftist executed by Iran’s regime in 1988 in Gohardasht prison, told The Jerusalem Post that trial is “ is a lot better than my expectations. It is like a dream come true.”
She is observing the proceedings and said the “best part is when they read the names of the victims. It took 25 minutes to read the names.”
Ebrahim Raisi, the current president of the Islamic Republic, while not at the trial, is a presence in the courtbecause of his alleged role in the 1988 mass murder. The US government sanctioned Raisi for his crimes during the 1988 massacre.
Barzargan, who lives in California, and traveled to Stockholm because her sister, Laleh, is a plaintiff in the case against Noury, added that the “Prosecutor said the number of the victims is larger than this. They are only looking at Gohardasht prison.” Laleh works as a pharmacist in Stockholm.
In her opinion article for Iran International on Friday, Barzargan wrote that ”Bijan was arrested in July 1982 at age 23. After two years of interrogation, torture, and uncertainty, he received a ten-year sentence. His indictment was membership in a leftist party, distributing pamphlets, and donating money to his group. After more than six years behind bars, he was suddenly executed. The prison authorities told my father that Bijan was killed because ‘he had forsaken his Islamic faith and was an apostate."
The prosecutor “went on how unfair the justice system is in Iran” and “said they are discriminating against woman, said Barzargan. She added that "The whole government of Iran is on trial. This should be an embarrassment to the EU to have anything to do with the [Iranian] government and Raisi."
She said that “I can’t think of anything worse that can happen to regime and Raisi” and "Raisi’s name was mentioned several times as part of death commission" during the trial. It is very bad “public relations for the regime. This court would scare him away if Raisi wants to travel. Every newspaper writing about why this trial is headache for Raisi and the regime."
Noury was sanctioned by the court before the start of the trial for reciting Koran verses that were viewed as disrupting the proceedings. The court barred him from reciting the verses, which included: "Give good news of a painful punishment to hypocrites. Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment who choose disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek honor and power through that company? Surely all honor and power belongs to Allah, and Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers.”
Barzargan wrote in Iran International that “During the massacre, the IRI's diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations justified these killings as part of unfortunate by-products of revolution and war. They promised change would come once the Iran-Iraq war was over. Ali Akbar Velayati, the IRI's Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, is on the official wanted list of Interpol since March 2007, for allegations of ‘Aggravated Murder and Damages’ related to the Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires.”
She added that "Velayati and his team in the United Nations, people like Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, Sirus Nasseri, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the early 1980s, rejected all of the resolutions against Iran and its violation of human rights.”
Raisi appointed Ahmad Vahidi as his interior minister, who is wanted by Interpol for his role in the Buenos Aires bombing.
The Post reported that Mahallati, who teaches at Oberlin College in Ohio, called for the destruction of Israel while serving as Tehran’s ambassador to the UN. Mahallati also denigrated the persecuted Baháʼí community in Iran.