Against promises of parties, women, and a Finnish cruise, he managed to lure executioner Hamid Noury to Sweden and get him convicted.
Now Hamid Noury is a free man – exchanged for two Swedish citizens. A tragedy that shows Iran they have free hands, believes Iraj Mesdaghi, who set the trap.
When Hamid Noury was arrested at Arlanda in November 2019, Iraj Mesdaghi cheered. The plan had come together. Mesdaghi, who himself was a hair's breadth from being executed in the summer of 1988, had managed to lure one of his tormentors from Gohardasht prison outside Tehran to Sweden.
In July 2022, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Noury to life imprisonment for his involvement in mass executions in Iran during the late summer of 1988. The verdict is unique: for the first time, crimes committed in Iran have been tried internationally. Barely two years later, the 63-year-old steps off a plane back home in Iran and is greeted with a red carpet.
I am very, very disappointed in the Swedish government, says Iraj Mesdaghi to TT.
This is a tragedy, a catastrophe. It has never been clearer than now that politics trumps the law.
"Iran has free hands"
The news that Hamid Noury was exchanged for the Swedish citizens Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi hit like a bomb. For Iraj Mesdaghi, who was one of the prosecutor's key witnesses during the trial against Noury, it is incomprehensible.
The decision seems to have been made in haste and without putting enough pressure on Iran, he says – not least since researcher Ahmadreza Djalali and two other Swedes who are imprisoned in Iran were left behind.
Djalali is facing the death penalty and will likely be hanged now. Why didn't they put more pressure? I don't understand why it had to happen so quickly, says Mesdaghi.
The pardon of Noury shows Iran that they can do what they want, he believes.
This sends the message that Iran has free hands in Sweden and in the EU. They can take hostages, do whatever they want – and still get a deal.
Still proud
Among exiled Iranians, criticism of the Swedish decision has been widespread. After the exchange, Iraj Mesdaghi spoke with a woman who lost eleven family members during the mass executions in 1988.
She cried and was so upset. "This proves that we can't trust European governments", she said.
Iraj Mesdaghi was present in the courtroom almost every day during the nine-month-long trial against Hamid Noury. Despite the disappointment, he can still feel joy over getting the executioner to court.
No one believed we could get him arrested, but we did. I am very glad and proud of that.
Hamid Noury was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022 by the district court for his involvement in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in an Iranian prison in 1988. The Svea Court of Appeal upheld the verdict last December.
Noury was lured to Sweden in 2019 and arrested at Arlanda. According to the case, he had selected prisoners who would be brought before a committee that decided who would be executed, read out the names of those who would be executed, and escorted them to the execution chamber. He also allegedly participated in the executions on one or more occasions.
The case was one of the largest of its kind in Sweden. Approximately 70 plaintiffs from different parts of the world were heard in connection with the trial.
