STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -A Swedish appeals court on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict and life sentence given to a former Iranian official convicted last year for his part in a mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
In 2022, the Stockholm District Court ruling found Hamid Noury guilty of murder and serious crimes against international law.
The case has caused a deep rift between Sweden and Iran, which said the initial verdict was politically motivated.
Noury is the only person so far to face trial over the purge at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988 that targeted members of the Iranian People’s Mujahideen, which was fighting in parts of Iran, as well as other political dissidents.
Noury, who denied the charges, was arrested at a Stockholm airport in 2019.
Under Swedish law, courts can try Swedish citizens and other nationals for crimes against international law committed abroad.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, Simon Johnson and Johan Ahlander, editing by Terje Solsvik and Louise Rasmussen)
