Iranian stands trial in Sweden for 1980s war crimes, murder

An Iranian man is standing trial in Sweden charged with grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s

STOCKHOLM -- The trial of an Iranian citizen accused of committing grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s started Tuesday in Stockholm. The trial of Hamid Noury comes just days after hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office as the highest-ranking civilian leader in the Islamic Republic. Raisi himself took part as a prosecutor in the so-called “death commission” that executed as many as 5,000 people at the end of Iran’s bloody war with Iraq in 1988, complicating how the West will interact with him as negotiators try to save Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Noury was arrested in November 2019 when he arrived in Stockholm, the Swedish capital, and has been held in custody since then.