Sweden charges Iranian over 1988 'war crimes and murder'
July 27, 2021
The 60-year-old is accused of partipating in the killing of political prisoners over 30 years ago. The executions were allegedly carried out at the behest of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Ayatollah Khomeini (center) — here sat with the then secretary general of the People's Mujahedeen (right) — ordered the killing of Mujahedeen political prisoners towards the end of the Iran-Iraq warImage: irancima
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An Iranian man was charged with the murder of over 100 political prisoners going back 33 years, Swedish prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Since many of the killings occurred in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war, they are being considered as war crimes. The suspect is alleged to have taken part in mass executions and subjected "prisoners to severe suffering which is deemed torture and inhuman treatment," the indictment said.
The 60-year-old man — who has denied the charges — was arrested in late 2019 after landing in Stockholm's Arlanda Airport. He is scheduled to appear in court on August 10.
Why did the mass executions take place?
Many of the victims were political dissidents belonging to the People's Mujahedeen that had sided with Iraq during the war in an attempt to overthrow the religious regime. Towards the end of the conflict they were involved in several attacks against the Islamic Republic.
"The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, shortly afterwards issued an order to execute all prisoners held in Iranian prisons who sympathized with and were loyal in their convictions to the Mujahedeen," the prosecutors said.
"Following this order, a large number of such prisoners were executed between July 30 and August 16, 1988, in the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran," they added.
An enduring conflict — 40 years since start of Iran-Iraq war
The Iran-Iraq war is one of the deadliest military conflicts in the Middle East. The eight-year-long conflict, which saw the use of chemical weapons, killed thousands of people and divided the region on sectarian lines.
Image: picture-alliance/Bildarchiv
A territorial dispute
On September 22, 1980, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent troops into neighboring Iran, starting an eight-year-long deadly war that killed thousands of people. The conflict started with a territorial dispute between the two Shiite majority countries.
Image: defapress
The Algiers accord
Five years earlier, in March 1975, Hussein, then Iraq's vice president, and the Shah of Iran signed a deal in Algiers to settle the border dispute. Baghdad, however, accused Tehran of plotting attacks and called for the evacuation of three strategic islands in the Strait of Hormuz, claimed by both Iran and the UAE.
Image: Gemeinfrei
A key water source
On September 17, 1980, Baghdad declared the Algiers accord null and void and demanded control of all of the Shatt al-Arab — a 200-kilometer-long (125 mile) river formed by the meeting of the Tigris and the Euphrates, which flows into the Gulf.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/N. al-Jurani
Bombing of ports and cities
Hussein's forces bombed Iranian airports, including the one in Tehran, as well as military facilities and Iran's oil refineries. Iraqi forces met little resistance in the first week and seized the towns of Qasr-e Shirin and Mehran, as well as Iran's southwestern port of Khorramshahr, where the Shatt al-Arab meets the sea.
Image: picture-alliance/Bildarchiv
Common enemy
Many Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, backed Baghdad in the war against Iran, fearing that the Islamic Revolution spearheaded by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini could influence the Shiite population in the Middle East. Western countries, too, supported Baghdad and sold weapons to Hussein's regime.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Iran pushes back
Iran's counterattack took Iraq by surprise as Tehran managed to take back the control of the Khorramshahr port. Baghdad announced a ceasefire and pulled back troops, but Tehran rejected it and continued to bomb Iraqi cities. From April 1984, the two sides engaged in a "war of the cities," in which some 30 cities on both sides were battered by missile attacks.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/UPI
Chemical weapons
One of the highlights of the Iran-Iraq war was Baghdad's use of chemical weapons on Iran. Tehran first made the accusation in 1984 — confirmed by the UN — and then again in 1988. In June 1987, Iraqi forces dropped poison gas canisters on the Iranian town of Sardasht. In March 1988, Iran claimed that Baghdad used chemical weapons against Iraqi citizens in the town of Halabja.
Image: Fred Ernst/AP/picture-alliance
Truce
On July 18, 1988, Khomeini accepted a UN Security Council resolution to end the war. While the exact number of those killed in the war is not known, at least 650,000 people died during the conflict. A ceasefire was declared on August 20, 1988.
Image: Sassan Moayedi
A new chapter
The toppling of Hussein's regime by the US in 2003 ushered in a new era in the Middle East. Relations between Iraq and Iran have improved since then and the two countries increasingly cooperate economically, culturally and socially.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Mohammed
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Relief more than 30 years later
Human rights groups have campaigned for years to bring those culpable for the mass killings to justice. Activists say that some are now working as officials in government in Iran.
"This extensive investigation resulting in this indictment shows that even though these acts were committed beyond Sweden's territory and for more than three decades ago, they can be subject to legal proceedings in Sweden," Public Prosecutor Kristina Lindhoff Carleson said.
"I am really relieved," key witness and plaintiff in the trial Iraj Mesdaghi told Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
"This is such an unbelievably important event for us: all the mums, dads, families and others connected to the people who fell victim to the Iranian regime. This crime has already been proven, I am really grateful that something is finally happening," Mesdaghi, who was a political prisoner in Iran in 1988, added.
