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Hostage diplomacy: What the release of an Iranian war criminal could mean for Australia
With the recent release of a former Iranian official in Sweden, there are growing concerns about Iran's use of hostage diplomacy. A source told SBS News that at least one Australian is still being held in an Iranian prison.
Published 21 June 2024 4:48pm
By Niv Sadrolodabaee, Jennifer Scherer
Source: SBS
Image: Iranian war criminal Hamid Nouri was released in exchange for two Swedish citizens. (Wikimedia Commons/Kevin Nha, VOA/Public Domain)
Key Points
- Iranian war criminal Hamid Nouri was released in exchange for two Swedish citizens, EU diplomat Johan Floderus and dual-national Saeed Azizi.
- Some experts describe the recent prisoner exchange as the use of hostage diplomacy by the Iranian regime.
- A source told SBS News that at least one Australian is still being held in an Iranian prison.
After living in Australia for almost 30 years, Fereydoon Najafi said he can still recall the moment he came face to face with his former jailor, Hamid Nouri, who was in charge of his execution.
“I started to explain what he did, and he got very angry and tried to deny it,” he said.
Najafi, who was a political prisoner in Iran in the 1980s, was one of the first witnesses of the Swedish trial of Iranian official Nouri, found guilty of war crimes and mass murder for his role in the 1988 executions of political prisoners in Iran, under the principles of universal jurisdiction in 2022.
Fereydoon Najafi narrowly escaped execution when he was 25. Credit: SBS News
‘Very cold-blooded’
According to Amnesty International, at least 5,000 prisoners were executed in Iran in 1988.
Recently, United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran Javaid Rehman said that he is “making the case that the crime of genocide was committed” during these executions.
“They executed thousands, some of whom were my friends. That is why I have to explain whatever I see and what happens to my friend(s). This is my duty,” Najafi told SBS News.
This courtroom sketch made on 23 November, 2021 shows former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury (L) and attorney Thomas Soderqvist during the war crime trial against Noury in Stockholm District Court, Sweden. Source: AFP / ANDERS HUMLEBO/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images
“He hit and tortured us and did whatever he could. He is very cold-blooded, not normal; he was always laughing and trying to make jokes about us,” Najafi said.
“I still have bad dreams about Nouri and how they tortured us.”
Iraj Mesdaghi, a witness of the 1988 executions and a former political prisoner, was involved in making a case against Nouri and his arrest and imprisonment in Sweden.
He recalled seeing Nouri in a section of the prison the prisoners called “the death corridor”.
“After a group of prisoners were executed, he was offering us sweets. In our culture in Iran, we do this when we want to celebrate something,” he told SBS News.
“Hamid Nouri and the others told us that they were going to put the last kick to our stomach [before we get hanged].”
‘I don’t like revenge, I just want justice’
Almost 30 years later, in 2019, Nouri was arrested by the Swedish police at Stockholm Arlanda Airport.
He was accused of torture, execution, the secret burial of victims and not letting their families know about their burial location.
Thirty-four plaintiffs and 26 witnesses testified in Nouri’s trial.
More than three years later, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Stockholm District Court.
“His conviction in Sweden was the first time anyone had been held responsible for these horrendous human rights abuses,” Nikita White, International Issues Campaigner for Amnesty International Australia, said.
The court said Nouri participated “in the executions of many political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988”.
Mesdaghi said he was “very happy” when he understood Nouri “was going to spend his life in prison”.
“Not because of the life imprisonment, but because they accepted this was a crime and believed what we said about him,” he said.
“I don’t like revenge, I just want justice. Now, the whole world knows what happened in Iran in 1988. The truth is the most important thing for us.”
‘A tragedy for justice’
A week ago, Nouri was released in exchange for two Swedish citizens, EU diplomat Johan Floderus and dual-national Saeed Azizi, who were freed and flown back to Sweden.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said, "Iran used them both as pawns in a cynical negotiations game with the purpose of getting the Iranian citizen Hamid Nouri released from prison in Sweden. He is convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s.”
Survivors and witnesses have described this as a miscarriage of justice.
“This is not justice, even though he was in jail for his life. This will not bring back those killed,” Najafi said.
“I’m happy that some Swedish people were released, but this is not how you deal with it. You have to find another way.”
Fereydoon Najafi. Credit: SBS News
As a result of the exchange, Nouri arrived in Iran on Saturday and was welcomed by the country’s officials.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the news and said that his imprisonment was based on a "wrongful order by the Swedish court".
“I’m very upset and disappointed about what the Swedish government did. Politics is almost always against justice,” Mesdaghi said.
“This is a tragedy for justice and a disaster.”
Hostage diplomacy a ‘highly profitable business model’
Some experts describe the recent prisoner exchange as the use of hostage diplomacy by the Iranian regime.
“They will use people as bargaining chips to extract some sort of concessions from their home country. It has been extremely profitable for the Iranian regime, and it has led to the release of convicted terrorists and billions of funds,” Dara Conduit, a Middle East specialist at the University of Melbourne, told SBS News.
“It’s actually a highly profitable business model.”
This model has been used for the last 40 years on several occasions. Just after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the American embassy was seized, and more than 50 people were taken hostage for 444 days.
Last September, Iran released several American citizens in exchange for several jailed Iranians. Additionally, the Iranian regime gained access to $6 billion in frozen oil revenues, permitted for humanitarian purchases.
“It is a dangerous practice, and the Australian government and the international community have already paid a significant price. With every prison swap and payment, the price of the next hostage increases,” Conduit said.
“It just risks more people being taken because it has been so successful.”
Australia’s most recent brush with hostage diplomacy was the release of academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert in 2020. She was exchanged in a prisoner swap for three Iranian convicted terrorists, sentenced in connection with a 2012 bomb plot in Thailand.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert. Credit: SBS News
“Australia stands resolutely against the use of arbitrary detention, arrest and sentencing to exercise diplomatic leverage,” the spokesperson said.
A source told SBS News that at least one Australian is still being held in an Iranian prison - though DFAT has not confirmed this.
‘Worried about the future’
For those foreigners detained in Iran, human rights groups warn the situation is critical.
Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish disaster medicine doctor, is one of them. Sweden did not secure his release in the latest prisoner swap. In 2016, he visited Iran at the invitation of two local universities, and was arrested and charged with espionage and collaboration with Israel.
In 2017, he was sentenced to death.
In a voice message from Evin Prison published by Iran International, Djalali addressed the Swedish Prime Minister: "It is obviously a discriminatory action that you secured the release of two Swedes and left me here helpless. Why not me after 3,000 days?"
“You decided to leave me behind under huge risk of being executed,” he added.
Amnesty International called on Swedish authorities to “take all action necessary" to secure Djalali's immediate release and return home to his family in Sweden.
“We are concerned that he could be executed at any moment. He has had numerous requests for judicial review denied, and what we are asking the Swedish authority to do is continue to advocate for his release, for him not to be executed,” White said.
According to reports, there are still German, British, Canadian, French and Swedish citizens imprisoned in Iran.
Najafi said the recent exchange between Iran and Sweden may worsen the situation.
“Nouri is gone; his story is finished,” he said.
“But I’m worried about the future. When you deal with terrorists, you will see the consequences in the future.”
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