TEHRAN -- Iran has called its ambassador to Sweden back to Tehran for consultations on a Swedish court’s life imprisonment for Iranian citizen Hamid Nouri, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani says.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to call the ambassador of our country to Sweden for some consultations in protest at the illegal statement and sentence issued in Sweden against Mr. Hamid Nouri, which is based on baseless, distorted and fabricated accusations,” Kanaani said.
Ambassador Ahmad Masoumifar was recalled after a Stockholm court on sentenced Nouri, 61, to life in prison on baseless accusations brought by the terrorist MKO group.
His accusers allege that Nouri was involved in the execution and torture of MKO members in 1988. Nouri has vehemently rejected the allegation.
Nouri was arrested upon arrival in Sweden at Stockholm Airport in November 2019, during a visit to sort out his adopted daughter’s family disputes. He had been held in solitary confinement since.
Shortly before the sentence, Nouri had given details of his physical torture at the hands of his jailers during a short phone contact with his family.
He also complained that no human rights organization had visited him during his long-running solitary confinement.
The Islamic Republic has dismissed the Swedish court’s sentence as illegal and called for Nouri’s immediate release.
On Thursday, a senior Iranian rights official warned that the Islamic Republic will not remain idle in response to Swedish court’s ruling, calling on Stockholm to “rectify its behavior”.
“Iran will not sit idly by and has several options on the table to respond to a) Sweden’s totally unlawful sentencing of Hamid Nouri to life imprisonment, and b) its’ brash support for notorious terrorist groups,” Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, tweeted.
“The clock is ticking for Sweden to rectify its behavior,” he added.
Gharibabadi separately censured
the contradictory and double standards of certain European countries with regard to Nouri’s illegal trial and ruling in Sweden.
“You cannot arrest and prosecute innocent Iranian citizens, be a safe haven for terrorist groups, seize Iran’s money and make its transfer subject to the emancipation of criminals and convicts in Iran, and accuse Iran of hostage-taking!,” he said.
“Iran would not sit on its hands over Sweden’s illegal action in the trial of Hamid Nouri and the issuing of life sentence for him as well as the country’s clear support for terrorist groups,” he added, noting that Iran has various options at its disposal.
Gharibabadi said some European countries have also become a safe haven for fugitive criminals who have absconded with the property of the people and the government, and keep refusing to return them to Iran.