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Iranian-Swedish Tensions Rise over Trial of 1988 Mass Executions Jailer

A courtroom sketch of Hamid Nouri sitting with his lawyer during his trial in Stockholm District Court on November 23, 2021 [Anders Humlebo/TT News Agency via Reuters]
A courtroom sketch of Hamid Nouri sitting with his lawyer during his trial in Stockholm District Court on November 23, 2021 [Anders Humlebo/TT News Agency via Reuters]
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Iranian-Swedish Tensions Rise over Trial of 1988 Mass Executions Jailer

A courtroom sketch of Hamid Nouri sitting with his lawyer during his trial in Stockholm District Court on November 23, 2021 [Anders Humlebo/TT News Agency via Reuters]
A courtroom sketch of Hamid Nouri sitting with his lawyer during his trial in Stockholm District Court on November 23, 2021 [Anders Humlebo/TT News Agency via Reuters]

Swedish-Iranian national Ahmad Reza Jalali is to be executed on May 21 at the latest, Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency said on Wednesday, citing sources.

Jalali, a disaster medicine doctor and researcher, was arrested in 2016 on an academic visit to Iran and sentenced to death on charges of espionage for Israel's Mossad.

The report comes as Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian prosecution official arrested by Swedish authorities in 2019, faces a life sentence in Sweden on charges of international war crimes and human rights abuses.

Nouri is accused of playing a leading role in the killing of political prisoners executed on government orders at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988.

Swedish prosecutors and plaintiffs have requested life imprisonment for Nouri for his role in the prison purges.

In the 89th session of Nouri’s trial, plaintiffs’ lawyers said Nouri played “an active role” in the execution of thousands of political prisoners in Iranian prisons and requested the court hand out the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for him.

On Sunday evening, Tehran summoned Sweden's ambassador over what it considered “baseless and false allegations” made against Nouri.

Iran's Secretary of High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi described Sweden’s trial of Nouri as “unlawful and unfair.”

Gharibabadi said Nouri's trial is a sham that violates the principles of justice and human rights.

Gharibabadi pointed out that “Nouri has been arrested based on false accusations and his detention is regarded as forced disappearance since his family was kept unaware of the arrest.”

There was no comment from the Swedish government on the Iranian statements.

In 2019, Nouri was arrested upon his arrival in Sweden over alleged human rights abuses.

Swedish prosecutors have invoked the principle of “universal jurisdiction” for serious crimes to bring the case against Nouri to trial.

Last week, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a message on Twitter, advised its country’s citizens against non-essential travel to Iran “due to the security situation.”

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Israel Says Campaign on Iran to Intensify as Tehran Pledges 'Destructive' Attacks

A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Israel Says Campaign on Iran to Intensify as Tehran Pledges 'Destructive' Attacks

A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 14, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Israel pounded Iran for a second day on Saturday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its campaign would intensify, while Tehran stated that "heavy and destructive" attacks by Iran against Israel were expected within the coming hours.

Netanyahu said Israel's strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program possibly by years and rejected international calls for restraint.

"We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs' regime, and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days," he said in a video message.

In Tehran, Iranian authorities said around 60 people, including 29 children, were killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets.

Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Friday night, killing at least three people in Israel. Air raid sirens sent Israelis into shelters as waves of missiles streaked across the sky and interceptors rose to meet them.

In the first apparent attack to hit Iran's energy infrastructure, Iranian media reported a fire on Saturday after Israel bombed the South Pars gas field in southern Bushehr province. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said some gas production there was suspended following the attack.

"If (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day and scores more on the second.

A military official on Saturday said Israel had caused significant damage to Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, but had not so far taken on another uranium enrichment site, Fordow, dug into a mountain.

The official said Israel had "eliminated the highest commanders of their military leadership" and had killed nine nuclear scientists who were "main sources of knowledge, main forces driving forward the (nuclear) program.”

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press revealed some of the damage sustained by Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal in an Israeli attack on the country.

Images from Planet Labs PBC taken Friday showed damage at two missile bases, one in Kermanshah and one in Tabriz, both in western Iran.