The district court of Durres, Albania, convened on Thursday to hold the forty-first session of the Hamid Noury trial. Noury, a former official in various prisons of Iran, is 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 in 2019. He 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 and executed prisoners.
The first 34 sessions of the trial were held in the District Court of Stockholm. At the request of the prosecutors, the judge decided to transfer the trial’s location to Albania in November, where thousands of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reside. Members of the MEK were the principal target of the 1988 massacre, in which the regime executed more than 30,000 political prisoners.
During Thursday’s session, former political prisoner Hassan Ashrafian recounted the events that took place in Gohardasht during the 1988 massacre. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested Ashrafian in February 1983 for supporting the MEK. He spent three years in Tehran’s Evin and Ghezel Hesar prisons. In 1986, he was transferred to Gohardasht prison. During the 1988 massacre, he was in Ward 3 of Gohardasht.
In Thursday's session, Hassan Ashrafian, a former political prisoner who was transferred to Gohardasht prison in March of 1986, testifies on the atrocities in the regime's horrific prisons.#1988Massacre#ProsecuteRaisiNOW
[File photo] pic.twitter.com/8T7E7YE20S
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 18, 2021
In his testimony to the court, Ashrafian described the chain of command in Gohardasht prison. Mohammad Moghiseh, who was also known as “Nasserian,” ran the affairs of the prison.
“As far as I know, Hamid Abbasi [Noury] was his [Nasserian’s] deputy. And Davoud Lashgari was in charge of prison security,” Ashrafian said.
Ashrafian described one of his encounters with Noury.
“Nasserian and Abbasi prevented us from exercising in prison,” Ashrafian said. “In June 1987, we were exercising in the prison’s courtyard. Suddenly 20-30 guards came into the courtyard and prevented us from doing our exercises. They beat us with cables, batons, and metal rods. They blindfolded us and pushed us into the main building.
“They took us to a small hall on the second floor, which the prisoners called the ‘gas chamber.’ They pushed us into the hall as we were still sweating from the exercise and they closed all the airways… after a couple of hours we were all suffocating.”
One of the prisoners protested to this form of torture by banging on the door. The guards took him away and beat him.
“After that, they took out the rest of us. The guards stood in two lines and formed a tunnel. They pushed us through the tunnel as we still had blindfolds and they beat has as we passed. I could hear Hamid Abbasi’s [Noury] voice who was saying, ‘Beat these Monafeghs [the term the regime uses to refer to MEK members and supporters] so that they don’t do such things,’” Ashrafian said.
In his conversation with the Swedish prosecutor, Ashrafian also said that he had seen Noury after the 1988 massacre.
“In September 1988, we were 53 prisoners in Ward 3. Before the massacre, there were 200 people. Of these, six or seven were charged with offenses other than supporting the MEK, while 190 of them were MEK supporters. Of these 200 people, only 53 remained,” Ashrafian said. “In September, the guards came and blindfolded us and took us to ward 13. This is where they brought all prisoners who had survived the massacre. They took a few others in the lower ward.”
“In September 1988, we were 53 prisoners in Ward 3. Before the #1988Massacre, there were 200 people. Of these, six or seven were charged with offenses other than supporting the MEK, but 190 of them were MEK supporters. Of these 200 people, only 53 remained,” Ashrafian said.#Iran pic.twitter.com/arVKEroJEx
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 18, 2021
On a day in early October, Noury and Moghiseh came to the ward along with several other guards.
“Nasserian [Moghiseh] started threatening us as was his habit,” Ashrafian said. “He said, ‘We killed all of them and we will kill the rest of you later. The era where you could protest and stage strikes is over. Don’t think our hands are tied. We can execute you like the rest anytime we want.’”
Hamid Noury was there and agreed with every statement by nodding his head.
Ashrafian also explained his last encounter with Noury.
“I was transferred to solitary confinement in November 1988… Then they took me to the lower Ward 1, which was called the Jahad Ward. We were about 70 prisoner who had been transferred here after the 1988 massacre,” Ashrafian said. “There were several cells. Around mid-November, Abbasi and several other guards to our section.
“We told them about the problems of the ward, such as lack of warm water and hygiene issues,” Ashrafian said. “Instead of solving our problems, Abbasi said, ‘Go and thank God that you are alive. If we wanted to execute the fatwa of the Imam—he meant Khomeini—completely, we would have to arrest and execute half of the people of Iran.’”
In July 1988, then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a religious decree in which he stipulated that any political prisoner who doesn’t disavow support for the MEK is an enemy of God and deserves to die. Based on this fatwa, the regime executed more than 30,000 political prisoners across Iran, most of them supporters and members of the MEK.
Ashrafian recounted his observations in Gohardasht during the 1988 massacre.
“We noticed on July 24, 1988, that family visits had been suspended in this ward,” Ashrafian said. “On July 26, when it was our ward’s turn for visits, we thought that our visits would be cancelled. But that day, authorities called out 10-15 names and took them for meetings. Twenty minutes later, they read a second list of names. But after that, all meetings were suspended. On the same day, they stopped selling state-run newspapers in prison and didn’t give us newspapers anymore. Breaks were also discontinued. On July 29, they removed the television from the room they called Hosseiniyeh.”
When the prisoners asked the guards the reason behind these measures, they answered that they have orders.
“On July 30, they called the prisoners of our ward and took us outside,” Ashrafian said. “Those days, they would regularly distribute lists among the prisoners and tell them to fill them out. The list included items such as name, particulars, accusation, remaining time from sentence, and so on.”
This happened on several occasions, Ashrafian recalled.
On July 30, Asharian was looking through the window of a room where prisoners kept their belongings.
“On that day, I wasn’t alone. I watched the prison courtyard and saw Davoud Lashgari holding a handgun. Five or six plainclothes agents were surrounding him,” Ashrafian said. “
The guards were accompanied by two Afghan prisoners wearing prison uniforms. “They were pushing wheelbarrows that were filled with ropes,” Ashrafian said. “I told the other prisoners to come and see the scene… From the thickness of the ropes, I didn’t think they were meant for anything other than hanging prisoners. But I didn’t want to express my thoughts loudly in front of the other prisoners.”
Ashrafian asked another prisoner what he thought the ropes were for. “For executions,” the latter said.
From the same vantage point, the prisoners could see some warehouses. The prisoners learned through morse communication that several prisoners were executed in those warehouses on July 30 and 31. “That was where they took the ropes,” Ashrafian said. The executed prisoners included inmates who had been transferred from prisons in Kermanshah and Mashhad to Gohardasht.
Ashrafian was in the same ward during the entire 1988 massacre.
“Beginning on July 30, they started to regularly read names from our ward,” Ashrafian said. “We were 98 inmates. On July 30, Davoud Lashgari took out all prisoners who had sentences higher than 10 years in prison. Based on their procedures, they transferred 60-70 prisoners to another ward and solitary confinement.”
Again, on July 31, the prison authorities read out more names of prisoners and took them away.
“From July 30, when they started reading the names, we knew where they were taking them,” Ashrafian said. “They took the rest of us to the cells. We said our goodbyes to those who were taken away.”
“From July 30, 1988, when they started reading out names, we knew where they were taking them,” Ashrafian said. “They took the rest of us to the cells. We said our goodbyes to those who were taken away.”#1988Massacre #Iran #ProsecuteRaisiNOW pic.twitter.com/XAEoq4wj6G
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 18, 2021
Ashrafian then detailed his own experience during the 1988 massacre.
“On August I was transferred to the third floor while blindfolded. I sat in the hall, two or three meters apart from the next individual. Lashgari had placed a table in the hallway and they would take the blindfolded prisoners to him where they would ask questions. Name, surname, father’s name, first of kin family members who are in prison. Then your opinion about the Islamic republic. Then what is your opinion about the MEK? Are you willing to conduct an interview?” Ashrafian said. “We would say we are supporters. Those who replied we are MEK supporters were separated and taken to other wards and cells. I wasn’t brave enough to say, like the others, that I’m an MEK supporter. Me and a few others were returned to the ward.”
Every day, the prison authorities would call out names of prisoners and take them away.
“About 12 to 14 prisoners were taken, of which only and maybe another survived,” Ashrafian said.
On the night of August 3, Ashrafian was walking in the Hosseiniyeh room when he heard the slight sound of a vehicle.
“We rushed to the windows. There were five of us there. We heard the slight sound of vehicles and we saw two trucks in the road, one on each side of the road. One of the vehicles had the engine running,” Ashrafian said. “The vehicle on the side of the road nearer to us had its motor running and we could see its red tail lights. I could see inside one of the trucks they had laid body bags. The light inside the truck was on. There were a few prison guards, one of them was inside the back of the truck and busy installing a cover so the back of the truck could not be seen.”
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.
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 for a larger tribunal that includes other perpetrators and orchestrators of the 1988 massacre, including regime president Ebrahim Raisi and supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
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.
