In July last year, Hamid Noury became the first person to be convicted of the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988, which took place on the orders of the then religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Hamid Noury was sentenced in the Stockholm District Court to life imprisonment for murder and crimes against international law.
On Tuesday, the Svea Court of Appeal upheld the verdict. Now Hamid Noury's defense lawyer says they intend to appeal it to the Supreme Court.
"There have been a number of errors. It is gross miscarriage of justice, says defense lawyer Thomas Bodström to SVT.
"A rule has been invented"
The reason why the case has been tried in Sweden is that the principle of universal jurisdiction has been applied. It gives a state the right to try a person from another country when the suspicions relate to serious international crimes.
According to Thomas Bodström, the case has not been handled properly.
"For the first time ever, a person has been convicted of committing murder along with thousands of other people. They have come up with their own rules," he says.
Allegations of conflict of interest
Thomas Bodström also believes that the judgment contains a conflict of interest. It is said to be a police officer who worked on the case, who himself had a relative who was executed in the same prisons that Hamid Noury was in.
According to the court, there are thus grounds for conflict of interest, but believes that other circumstances mean that the prosecution should not be dismissed because of it, TT writes.
"It's a conflict of interest. And the prosecutor knew that all along, without saying anything. There must be consequences for this," says Thomas Bodström.
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Life sentence set for Hamid Noury. Photo: Stefan Jerrevång/TT