Sweden warns citizens not to travel to Iran amid row over war crimes trial

Sweden arrested former official in 2019 who stands accused of executing civilian prisoners

Tehran has been accused of taking foreign citizens prisoner on baseless charges to use them as leverage in foreign policy negotiations. Reuters

Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is summoning Sweden’s ambassador to condemn the trial of a former Iranian official accused of being involved in thousands of extrajudicial executions during the 1980s.

Hamid Noury, 61, has been on trial in Stockholm since last August. Arrested in 2019, he stands accused of being involved in a wave of mass killings in 1988, at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.

Rights groups say as many as 30,000 people were killed, although estimates of the final death toll vary significantly.

An Iranian soldier guards Iraqi prisoners of war in Ahvaz, Iran, on January 22, 1987. AFP

Iranian prisoners of war north of Basra on March 18, 1985, after a foiled offensive by Iranian troops. AFP

Iraqi soldiers celebrate their victory over Iran in the strategic Al Faw peninsula of south Iraq on April 20, 1988. AFP

An Iraqi soldier flashes a victory sign near Al Howeizah swamps, north of Basra city, on March 18, 1985. AFP

An Iranian mother hugs her son in Tehran following his release from an Iraqi prison, on August 1, 1989. AFP

Iraqi soldiers pose in front of a mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the strategic Al Faw peninsula of southern Iraq on April 20, 1988. AFP

Iraqis in Baghdad celebrate the ceasefire between Iraq and Iran on August 20, 1988. AFP

Iraqi soldiers wave near a tank after the destruction of Iranian positions in the Al Faw peninsula in southern Iraq, April 20, 1988. AFP

Iranian revolutionary guards celebrate their victory over Iraqi troops in Iraq's Bovarian Island, near Basra, on January 23, 1987. AFP

Iranian anti-aircraft artillery and captured Iraqi hardware in the Iraqi Al Faw peninsula, on February 17, 1986, AFP.

Iraqi soldiers as they regained the Al Faw peninsula of south Iraq on April 20, 1988. Al Faw was scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Iran-Iraq war. AFP

Firefighting vessels on the Singapore-flagged tanker Norman Atlantic after an Iranian attack near the Strait of Hormuz on December 6, 1987. AFP

Former Iranian military bunkers in the southern Iraqi region of Al Faw on September 17, 2020. AFP

A destroyed mosque in Iraq's southern Al Faw peninsula on September 17, 2020. AFP

An Iraqi soldier at Al Rahman mosque, built in 1989, on the southern region of Al Faw on September 17, 2020. AFP

A US Navy minesweeping helicopter leads the way for a US reflagged Kuwaiti tanker convoy, on October 22, 1987, in the Arabian Gulf. AFP

Firefighting vessels extinguish flames on the Singapore-flagged Norman Atlantic after it was attacked by an Iranian warship in Omani territorial waters, on December 6, 1987. AFP

Many of those killed were hung from cranes, a common method of execution by the regime in Tehran. Victims included members of the Mujahideen e-Khalq, a resistance group that sided with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the war, as well as other opposition groups.

Many were allegedly killed after being detained on unexplained charges and being tortured during interrogation.

Swedish ambassador Mattias Lentz was summoned following a trial session on Thursday when prosecutors requested the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for Mr Noury.

Sweden's foreign ministry in a Twitter post advised its citizens against non-essential travel to Iran “due to the security situation”.

Tehran has been accused of taking foreign citizens prisoner on baseless charges to use them as leverage in foreign policy negotiations.

Mr Noury is being charged under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows Swedish courts to handle serious cases such as war crimes regardless of where the offences were committed.