Durres, Albania, November 10, 2021—On Wednesday, the District Court of Durres, Albania, convened for the thirty-fifth session of the trial of Hamid Noury, an Iranian prison official charged with torturing inmates in the Gohardasht prison (Karaj) and taking part in the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners. Noury was apprehended by Swedish authorities during a trip to the country. Noury is now standing trial in a court where many of his victims are giving harrowing testimonies of how he and other regime officials brutally tortured prisoners.
The previous sessions of the trial were held in the District Court of Stockholm. For Wednesday’s session, the court was transferred to Durres, Albania, where members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) residing in Ashraf 3 will testify. In Wednesday’s session, Mohammad Zand, a former political prisoner who spent eleven years in Iran’s prisons testified on the atrocities that took place in Iran’s brutal prisons. During the 1988 massacre, Zand was in Gohardasht prison.
“On July 28, 1988, I was in on the third floor of the prison. Prison authorities stopped bringing in newspapers,” Zand said in his testimony. “That night, after the prisoner count, Davood Lashgari [one of the torturers] came to the ward and read out three names: Gholamhossein Eskandari, Seyyed Hossein Sobhani, and Mehran Hoveida.”
At the time, Zand and several other prisoners objected to the prison authorities’ decision to stop giving newspapers to the inmates.
“Lashgari took us out of the cell and into the hallway. He blindfolded us and asked us what our charge was,” Zand said. “As soon as we said we are supporters of the MEK, the guards started to beat us. A prison guard whose name was Davood and was trained in martial arts kicked me in the foot with his boots and broke my toe. They continued beating us for an hour.”
Lashgari asked the prisoners the same question again, and the prisoners repeated that they were supporters of the MEK. “Lashgari said, ‘Go back to your cells. We’ll come for you on Thursday,’” Zand said.
“When I returned to the ward I was in very bad conditions. My brother, Reza, saw and said you are very ill. I was falling to the ground when Gholam-Hossein Eskandari and Ramin Ghasemi helped me go to the showers where I vomited. That night I tried to sleep with that pain,” Zand continued.
“On Friday, July 29, they turned off the TV and banned any open airtime. My brother, Reza Zand, was walking with Mahmoud Royayie and said this has gone far beyond ordinary harassment. We need to protest. My brother was 21 years and a college student studying technology. He was arrested in September of 1981 along with his friend, Parvis Sharifi. Parviz was sentenced to life in prison and Reza to ten years behind bars. Parviz was executed in 1988,” he explained.
“Reza was trying to help those prisoners who needed financial assistance. He told my father to provide him with more money to help those prisoners. He was very kind. I asked him why he says the status quo is not normal. He answered, ‘Don’t you remember what they did to Masoud Moghbeli?’ Masoud Moghbeli was transferred to the Joint Committee in March of 1988 to be released. The authorities asked him to do an interview, which he did not agree to. They sent him a message, ‘Go tell your friends we’ll come for you soon.’ Prior to Reza’s execution my mother came to visit us. Reza told my mother, ‘You won’t see me again and this regime will not let us go free,’” Zand added.
On July 30, the prison guards entered the ward and called out eight names, Zand recalls. “Reza gave me his ring and prayer beads and told me to keep them to remember him. I did not take it. He gave it to someone else and said, ‘Goodbye. We’re gone,’” he said.
Around 11 am, one of the prisoners looking through the window blinds saw Lashgari and several plainclothes agents carrying a wheelbarrow full of hanging ropes. “I saw them too,” Zand said.
Two or three hours later, the prisoners heard shouts of “Death to Monafegh,” a derogatory term the regime uses to refer to MEK members. On the suggestion of one of the prisoners, Zand told the prison guards that he wanted to send some clothes for his brother Reza. The guard told him there’s no need to send him clothes.
That night, one of the prison guards came to the door and asked for the name of the father of one of the prisoners they had taken away. “He was speaking in the past tense,” Zand said. “We were certain that they had executed him.”
On July 30, many prisoners were executed in Gohardasht. According to Zand’s testimony, many were brought in from other cities, including Mashhad and Kermanshah. Those who remain steadfast in their support for the MEK were immediately hanged.
“On July 31, the guards took away the prisoners from Karaj, including Mehrdad Samadzadeh, Mehrdad Ardebili, Hossein Bahri, Zeinolabedin Afshun, Mohammad Farmani, and Ali Osati, who was a close friend of mine,” Zand said.
“On August 5, they brought Gholamhossein Feiz to our ward. He said that the executions had started and he had learned about it while he was in solitary confinement,” Zand said.
“If they take me to the death commission, I will defend my support for MEK,” Feiz told Zand at the time.
“He was executed on August 6,” Zand said.
Zand was taken to the death commission, where Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, one of the members of the commission asked him whether he wanted to be pardoned by then supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
“I said my sentence will be over soon and why did you execute my brother? He would have been released in three years,” Zand said.
Zand was then taken to another hall, where he could hear the voices of Lashgari, Nouri, and Mohammad Moghiseh, a notorious torturer who was known as “Nasserian” in prison.
Lashgari read out several names and took the prisoners to the amphitheater, the place that later became known as the “Death Hall,” where prisoners were executed in groups.
Zand was later taken to solitary confinement, where he stayed for three months. He was returned to the ward in late October. He asked one of the prisoners how many inmates are left.
“As far as I know, you’re the last one,” the prisoner told him.
“There were 160-170 prisoners in that ward before,” Zand said. “Of all the prisoners in Gohardasht, those few remained.”
Ten days later, Zand was allowed to meet with his parents and sister. “They asked me where is Reza? I said go and ask them,” he said.
After a few days, regime authorities called Zand’s father and told him to go to Evin prison and bring Reza’s identification papers with him. He went to prison without the papers.
“They gave him a bag, a shirt, and a watch,” Zand said. “Reza had broken his watch as it pointed to two o’clock to indicate what time he had been executed.”
Prison authorities tried to force Zand’s father to hand over his son’s identification papers. When he did not comply, they took him to prison and, to intimidate him, they staged a mock execution for him.
“My father said, ‘Execute me. I will join my son,’” Zand said.
The authorities told Zand’s father that he was not allowed to hold any ceremony for his executed son. This was a tactic that the regime carried out against all families of the executed prisoners. Zand’s father held a glorious ceremony in honor of his son.
November 10 – Durres, Albania
Numerous PMOI/MEK members, including former political prisoners & survivors of #Iran‘s #1988Massacre, were interviewed by the media on the executions of over 30,000 political prisoners & the role of regime officials/operatives.#ProsecuteRaisiNOW pic.twitter.com/JPc9nm3vvA— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 10, 2021
While the trial proceeded, several witnesses of the 1988 massacre and families of the victims gathered in front of the court in Durres and spoke to the press about the Iranian regime’s crimes against MEK members and dissidents.
At the same time, MEK members in Ashraf 3 held a gathering in memory of the victims of the 1988 massacre. During this ceremony, many political prisoners spoke and retold accounts of the atrocities that took place in Iran’s prisons. It is worth noting that hundreds of former political prisoners are now in Ashraf 3, and many of them were prepared to testify in the Stockholm court. Due to limitations in time, only a few were accepted as plaintiffs in the case.
Coinciding with the Hamid Noury trial in Durres, Albania, #Iran opposition PMOI/MEK members in Ashraf 3 held a ceremony in memory of the over 30,000 political prisoners executed by the mullahs’ regime during the #1988Massacre.#ProsecuteRaisiNOW pic.twitter.com/NKiESwbRYF
— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 10, 2021
Meanwhile, in Stockholm, where Noury and his lawyers are attending the trial through video conference, a large group of supporters of the MEK held their protest rally in front of the court. The demonstrators are demanding a larger tribunal that includes other perpetrators and orchestrators of the 1988 massacre, including regime president Ebrahim Raisi and supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
November 10 – Stockholm
Rally of supporters of the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK coinciding with the Hamid Noury trial in Durres, Albania.#Iran #1988Massacre #ProsecuteRaisiNOWpic.twitter.com/E1JFxJjGzC— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 10, 2021
During the summer of 1988, the regime carried out the swift and brutal execution of more than 30,000 political prisoners across Iran, mostly MEK members and supporters. The purge was directly ordered by regime supreme leaders Ruhollah Khomeini in an edict that explicitly stated that anyone supporting the MEK is an enemy of God and deserves to be executed.
The 1988 massacre has been described as a war crime and crime against humanity. Legal experts also recognize it as a “genocide” and should be addressed by international tribunals.
The court resumed in the afternoon, local time. Mohammad Zand explained when he first saw Hamid Noury.
“It was in early 1987. I went to the prison’s judiciary office to have my verdict changed. They took me to a room that was later used for the ‘Death Commission.’ It was there [Noury] changed my verdict. I signed and Nasserian was sitting in the room. This is how I understood their roles. I realized Nasserian was the prison’s judiciary official and Hamid Noury was his chief of staff,” Zand said.
Authorities in Iran have carried out horrific tortures on prisoners throughout the past four decades. Mohammad Zand shed light on the appalling use of cables to whip inmates.
“I have brought with me a sample of the cable used to torture prisoners. Most of them used thick versions. The prisoners were laid on a bed. Their hands were tied to the front and their feet to the back of the bed, and even the two big toes were tied together to make sure both feet were being whipped at the same time. When the prisoner was laid on the bed, one person would sit on their stomach and another would place a handkerchief in the prisoner’s mouth. Another individual would start whipping the prisoner’s feet. I’m asking the judges and lawyers here to use this cable and strike a small blow to their own hands to then feel how painful 100, 200, or even 1,000 blows would feel. Our feet would be swollen and bleeding, and in such circumstances the prison authorities would tell us to jump up and down to decrease our feet’s inflation. Afterwards they would start whipping us again. These were the tortures that all inmates endured in the regime’s prisons,” Zand said.
