Hamid Nouri permitted to phone family after a year: son

June 14, 2023 - 21:13

TEHRAN- A former official of the Iranian judiciary who has been unlawfully jailed in Sweden since late 2019 has been given permission to phone his family after a full year, his son says.

In a tweet on Tuesday, his son, Majid said that “by God’s grace and thanks to our friends’ prayers as well as political and media pressures, Sweden finally stopped one instance of its inhumane behaviors, and my father was allowed to call after a year.”

“I am glad that we got to talk to my father,” he added.

Nouri was detained instantly upon arriving at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport more than three years ago.

He was accused by Swedish authorities of participating in the 1988 murder and torture of the MKO (Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization) members who conducted terrorist activities inside Iran.

A Swedish court condemned Nouri to life in prison on July 14, 2022.

Nouri was found guilty of what the MKO had claimed were war crimes and crimes against humanity by the court, which has been branded unlawful by Iranian officials.

Since his wrongful arrest, Nouri has been held in solitary detention.

Speaking to his family, he partially recounted his ordeal.

“Being in prison already has its own concomitant adversities. If you are held in solitary confinement, it is like you are being held in a prison, which is located inside another prison,” he said, adding, “I have been truly subjected to too much oppression and I am innocent.”

His son added, “We are still pursuing cessation of his unjust trial so that he is freed from the thralldom of incarceration.”

In December of last year, Nouri’s son stated that the victim had been tortured ever since his detention, saying the systematic abuse he had endured was clearly the work of the Israeli regime.

Majid went on to highlight, “We regard the model of torture against my father, which includes severe restrictions and imbalance in services, to be the Israeli model.”

Nouri is not the only Iranian who has gone through an illegitimate court process and been imprisoned in Europe due to baseless accusations.

Back in May, 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 Judiciary-run 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.

She also called the lengthy period a “record” in the world and the way his jailers treat him as “very heinous.”

Based on Larsson’s remarks, Nouri’s family members have been unable to visit him.

Additionally, she put the blame on the Swedish jail officials for failing to set up visits despite having “enough time to do so.”

Also, she said, Nouri has recently been denied access to his laptop and iPad by the jail authorities.

“He is entitled to have in-person and virtual meetings, but no meetings are held," the lawyer added.

Larsson criticized the Swedish government for denying Nouri access to important documents that are necessary for his legal defense in court and rejected the prosecutor’s claim that the records had been given to her client as “not true.”

“These documents were of great value to our client and now we cannot defend him as we should and be ready for defense,” lawyer stressed.

The issue of Nouri’s poor eyesight was also brought up by Larsson, who said that her client had repeatedly asked the prison officials to arrange an appointment for him to see an ophthalmologist.