TEHRAN- Hamid Nouri’s attorney criticized on Sunday the Swedish government for levelling false accusations against the former Iranian official, saying that Nouri’s life sentence violates human rights.

Nouri’s attorney, Thomas Bodstrom, made remarks that were reported by the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) indicating that the Swedish Court of Appeals ultimately upheld Nouri’s life sentence, even though the case had several breaches.

He brought up the fact that Nouri had been denied crucial files that were necessary for his Court of Appeal defense, with the court arguing that the evidence had been inadvertently deleted by the jail.

Nouri’s Swedish lawyer said that it is “believed that Nouri, arrested in Stockholm Arlanda Airport, was deceived in such a way that violates the principles of human rights,” cautioning the Swedish government against misleading individuals about issues that are not relevant to them.

Bodstrom further said that Nouri’s conviction cost Sweden hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iranian visitors who had served in the Iranian government and do not want to face life imprisonment by visiting Sweden.

Bodstrom described the case as “very strange” in an interview, stating, “I cannot understand why we should have a trial in Sweden about what happened in another country 35 years ago for a person who is not a Swedish person.”

Iran’s judiciary declared earlier this month that the country “will not recognize any verdict except the acquittal verdict regarding Hamid Nouri’s innocence,” labeling the Nouri verdict as “unfair.”

In an effort to express disapproval of Nouri’s life sentence, the Iranian Foreign Ministry also called Sweden’s charge d'affaires in Tehran. The ministry pointed out in a statement that the decision “once again demonstrated the double standards of the Western countries that claim to be advocating for human rights worldwide.”

The ministry fervently criticized as “fundamentally unacceptable” a Swedish court’s verdict against Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judicial officer who is being held unlawfully in Sweden.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said that “the Islamic Republic of Iran regards the primary and appeals court’s verdict concerning Iranian citizen Hamid Nouri to be fundamentally unacceptable and strongly condemns it.”

“It is regrettable that the Swedish court, disregarding the standards of a fair trial, has moved to issue such a destructive verdict,” he added. 

Kanaani emphasized that by making such a decision, Sweden has sided with terrorist groups opposed to Iran, endangering Tehran-Stockholm relations.

He noted, “Unfortunately, Sweden’s judicial system, by siding with the terrorist groups that have been engaged in the most heinous terrorist and inhumane acts against the people of Iran, Iraq, and even Europe for decades, has endangered the interests of the two nations as well as the old, historical and deep-rooted relations between the two countries.”

The spokesman further stated that the Islamic Republic reserves the right to take “appropriate” measures in this respect.

In November 2019, Nouri was detained while arriving at Stockholm Airport and was subsequently taken into custody.

He has been detained in Sweden’s solitary confinement for three and a half years without authorization.

He was put on trial on baseless accusations made by elements of the terrorist organization Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which has publicly boasted of carrying out terrorist attacks against Iranian officials and citizens who are thought to be government supporters.

Nouri has vehemently denied the terrorist group’s unfounded allegations that he was complicit in the 1988 death and torture of MKO members.

Nouri was given a life sentence by a Swedish court in July of last year. The court, which Iran first denounced as being illegitimate, found Nouri guilty of “war crimes and crimes against humanity” based solely on testimony from MKO terrorists who were living in exile around Europe.

Since his erroneous arrest, the former Iranian judiciary officer has been kept in solitary prison.

Back in May, Hamid Nouri’s lawyers challenged his trial procedure and how he is being treated in jail, noting the time that the 62-year-old man is being held in solitary confinement is too long and is considered a “world record.”

According to the Iranian Judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency, Nouri’s attorney Hanna Larsson stated that her client has now spent 3.5 years in solitary confinement in Swedish detention centers.