Iran slams Swedish court verdict upholding ex-official’s life sentence

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Iran on Wednesday condemned as “fundamentally unacceptable” a Swedish court ruling that upheld a life sentence against a former Iranian judiciary employee.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Tehran rejects the verdict issued by the Stockholm Regional Court against Hamid Nouri, which was upheld on Tuesday by the Stockholm Court of Appeals.

“It is regrettable that the Swedish court has pronounced such a destructive judgment without considering the standards of fair trial,” Kanaani said in a statement.

He accused the Swedish judicial system of “siding with terrorist groups that have been engaged in the most heinous terrorist and anti-human acts against the people of Iran, Iraq and even Europe.”

The Iranian spokesman said Tehran “reserves its right to take appropriate measures,” without elaborating.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, in fulfilling its inherent duties to defend the rights of its citizens, has utilized all legal capacities and resources to liberate the citizen in question from injustice and will persist in its efforts until the complete realization of the rights of its citizens," he said.

In July last year, 62-year-old Nouri was sentenced to life by a Swedish court after being convinced of what the court termed a "serious crime against international law" and "murder," in reference to the executions of members of Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK) in 1988.

MEK group, accused by the Iranian government of plotting terrorist attacks in the country, was removed from the foreign terrorist organization (FTO) list by the US government in September 2012.

The verdict means Nouri could spend a minimum of 20 to 25 years in jail in Sweden.

The former Iranian official was arrested upon his arrival in Sweden in November 2019, but his trial began in August 2021 in a highly political atmosphere.

While Swedish prosecutors called for a life term for Nouri, Iranian authorities engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to seek his release.

Iran’s judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi, in a press conference in Tehran on Wednesday, termed the Swedish court verdict a “blatant act of injustice.”

Setayeshi said Nouri’s 50-month detention in Sweden without access to the most basic rights of a prisoner points to the unfair trial and Swedish court “siding with terrorists.”