July 30, 2021

Iran Attempting to Manipulate Trial of Henchman

Sweden is scheduled to open criminal proceedings against an Iranian national named Hamid Noury.

On August 5, 2021, the new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, will be inaugurated. Raisi was a member of the infamous Death Commission in Tehran in 1988. Along with Hossein Ali Nayyeri, the Sharia judge; Morteza Eshraqi, Tehran Prosecutor; Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Deputy Minister of Intelligence, Raisi was a key decision maker in the summary executions of thousands of members and supporters of the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) in Evin and Gohardasht prisons. According to those who survived the massacre, Raisi played a dual role of prosecutor and a member of the death committee to deiced on the fate of prisoners.

Altogether 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in a matter of a few months and buried in unmarked mass graves. None had been sentenced to death and some had even completed their prison terms but were not released. No information on the victims, the manner in which they were murdered or where they were buried has been given to the families of the victims.

Raisi’s ascension to presidency drew international outrage. Javaid Rahman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, called for the formation of an independent inquiry into the 1988 massacre. “I think it is time and it’s very important now that Mr. Raisi is the president (-elect) that we start investigating what happened in 1988… Otherwise we will have very serious concerns about this president and the role, the reported role, he has played historically in those executions,” Rehman told Reuters news agency, adding, “There is a widespread and systemic impunity in the country for gross violations of human rights, both historically in the past as well as in the present.”

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Calamard, echoed the same demand: “That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran… The circumstances surrounding the fate of the victims and the whereabouts of their bodies are, to this day, systematically concealed by the Iranian authorities, amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity.”

True to form, when asked during his post-election news conference by reporters about his role in the killings, Raisi brazenly said, “If a judge, a prosecutor has defended the security of the people, he should be praised … I am proud to have defended human rights in every position I have held so far.”

In a related development, on August 10, five days after Raisi officially takes over, a court in Sweden is scheduled to open criminal proceedings against an Iranian national named Hamid Noury, who was arrested in November 2019, for his role in the 1988 massacre. According to the indictment released by the Swedish Prosecutor Authority, Noury, an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the time of the killings, committed a serious infringement Geneva Convention IV, including among others, of the common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention IV and of the universally recognized principles of international humanitarian law.“

"The violation of international law is to be regarded as serious because a very large number of people have been executed, tortured, and subjected to inhuman treatment in extremely cruel forms,” the indictment emphasized.

In a surprising revelation in the case, the War Crimes Unit (WCU) of the National Operations Department (NOA) of the Swedish Police, tasked with investigating Noury’s role, released a series of documents, including an email from Noury to an Iranian-Swedish national, Iraj Mesdaghi, who claims to be among the survivors of the 1988 massacre and a plaintiff in the proceedings. The email written nine months before Noury’s arrest in Sweden has caused alarm among the Iranian diaspora and the witnesses that the regime in Tehran, fearful of the exposure of the details of Raisi’s role during the trial, is attempting to manipulate the proceedings. Mesdaghi is notorious among Iranian exiles who point to his own admission of collaborating with prison authorities at the time of the 1988 killings.

The 1988 massacre reminds me of the “Dirty War” in Argentina in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The similarities between these two atrocities are striking in that the governments both attempted to cover up their wrongdoings—while the Argentine junta staged guerrilla attacks to justify their “civil war,” the Iranian regime simply denied the event ever happened and essentially tried to erase it from history.

Just as the members of the Argentinean junta were held accountable in the 1980s, the same must be done in Iran. Creating an international commission of inquiry into the crimes of the Iranian government would further establish this precedent of justice and protecting human rights and would display to the world that those who violate international law on such a deadly scale will be held responsible for their actions, including Ebrahim Raisi. The regime in Tehran must be allowed to evade accountability.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.