Sweden’s top court refuses to hear case of Iranian national Hamid Nouri

Sweden’s Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal by Iranian prisoner Hamdi Nouri, thus upholding a life sentence verdict given to him last year by the country’s Appellate Court.

“The Supreme Court has now decided not to grant leave to appeal. This means that the judgment of the Court of Appeal stands,” the court’s statement said on Wednesday.

Nouri, a former Iranian judicial official, has been in prison in Sweden since November 2019, when he was arrested at a Stockholm airport based on complaints filed by notorious anti-Iran figures linked to the MKO terrorist group.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 by the Stockholm District Court that convicted him of “crime against international law”.

The Swedish court accused Nouri of involvement in executing MKO members in Iran in 1988.

The group is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Iran in the 80s. The victims include ordinary citizens and high-ranking officials.

The verdict was then upheld by Sweden’s Appeal Court in December 2023.

Lawyers and legal experts say the court should have set aside political considerations in the case and should have reviewed it on legal grounds. Nouri himself has strongly denied the charges against him, calling them fabricated. Nouri’s lawyers have also documented numerous cases of violation of his rights during imprisonment in Sweden.

The lawyers have also questioned Sweden’s use of its principle of universal jurisdiction which allows its courts to try Nouri.

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