TEHRAN -- The Iranian foreign
ministry summoned the Swedish chargé d’affaires in Tehran on Thursday and handed him a note of protest over a Swedish court sentence against Iranian national Hamid Nouri.
A Swedish court sentenced Nouri to life in prison over baseless charges brought by the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).
The ministry denounced the sentence “contrary to the principles of the international law,” calling the tribunal “incompetent” and the legal proceedings “illegal”.
It also excoriated Sweden for its “selective approach towards terrorism” by lending credence to allegations brought by terrorists who accuse Nouri of involvement in execution and torture of MKO members in 1988. Nouri has vehemently rejected the allegation.
He was arrested upon arrival in Sweden at Stockholm Airport in November 2019 and was immediately imprisoned.
The foreign ministry said Nouri had been subjected to solitary confinement and various mental and physical pressures, calling the treatment a “virtual manifestation of torture and violation of the fundamental human rights”.
The Swedish government, the ministry said, is responsible for the violations and repercussions that the case would have on Sweden’s relations with the Islamic Republic.
It called on Stockholm to reverse Nouri’s conviction, enable his immediate release, and compensate him for the dire conditions that he has been forced to suffer.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani strongly condemned the Swedish court’s “political statement”, saying it contained “baseless and fabricated” allegations against the Islamic Republic and its judiciary.
“What can be read between the lines of today’s announcement of the ruling is that Sweden’s judiciary system is practically supporting and promoting terrorism instead of being accountable to the Iranian people for allowing a terrorist cult to be active in the country and for violating its international responsibility to indiscriminately fight terrorism,” he said.