[1][2] In early 2021 charges of murder and war crimes were filed against the former Iranian prosecutor, where Nouri was accused of "torture and inhuman treatment.
[6] Nouri was charged with more than 100 murders and "a serious crime against international law", and was expected to provide evidence implicating Ebrahim Raisi, president of Iran, at the time of the trial.
[7] Nouri was sentenced to life in prison and expulsion with a permanent bar from re-entering Sweden,[8] and ordered to pay damages amounting to 1,2 million SEK.
[10][11][12] Iran and Sweden carried out a prisoner swap on 15 June 2024 and Nouri was exchanged for a European Union diplomat Johan Floderus and another man named Saeed Azizi.
[16] In the recording, Hossein Ali Montazeri is heard saying that the ministry of intelligence used the MeK's armed incursion in 1988 as a pretext to carry out the mass killings, which "had been under consideration for several years".
[20] An audio file by former Deputy Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, emerged in 2016 where Montazeri is heard telling Hossein Ali Nayeri, Morteza Eshraghi, Ebrahim Raisi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi that "the biggest crime in the Islamic Republic, for which the history will condemn us, has been committed at your hands, and they'll write your names as criminals in the history.
They interviewed several witnesses, and drafted documents setting out the factual and legal basis on which Nouri was suspected of committing grave crimes during the 1988 prison massacres in Iran.
[22] An investigation organised by the Borumand Foundation conducted by the UK leading Counsel Geoffrey Roberston QC had earlier concluded that egregious violations of international human rights laws had been carried out by the regime in Iran in the aftermath of the Death Fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini ordering the killing of political prisoners who had remained "steadfast" in their views.
On 14 July 2022, Nouri was sentenced to life in prison and expulsion with a permanent bar from re-entering Sweden, and ordered to pay damages amounting to 1.2 million SEK.
[37] Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib said that Ahmad Reza Djalali's "espionage for the Zionist regime has been proven and his death sentence has gone through all judicial stages.
The Swedish government, on behalf of the Zionist regime and the United States, illegally detained our citizen Mr. Hamid Nouri in Sweden shortly after his arrest and trial, and took him hostage.
"[38] The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said that the recent arrests of Swedes in Iran and the death sentence of Ahmad Reza Djalali were a "warning" in retaliation for Nouri's trial.
[39][40][41] Human right groups said that the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has a pattern of hostage diplomacy where dual or foreign nationals are "detained on trumped-up charges of espionage and then leveraged politically to release frozen funds, or to be exchanged for Iranian citizens incarcerated in other countries.