Iranian press review: Freed war criminal glorifies 1988 executions of political prisoners
Swedish court convict defends 1988 executions
Hamid Noury, a former prison official who was given a life sentence by a Swedish court for his role in the 1988 mass execution of Iranian political prisoners, appeared in a video from inside Iran, calling the victims “terrorists” and threatening other opposition groups.
Noury was arrested upon his arrival in Sweden in 2019 and judged under the principle of universal jurisdiction for “criminal and flagrant violations of international law” - the equivalent of war crimes - and “intentional killings”.
According to human rights organisations, at least 3,000 political prisoners were executed in Iranian prisons that year.
Some of the prisoners had been serving the final days of their sentences and were awaiting release. Many bodies were never returned to their families and were buried in unmarked graves without their relatives’ knowledge.
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In a video posted on Farsi-language social media, Noury spoke to the camera at one of these cemeteries, saying: “This place should look familiar to you... I am in Iran... These are criminals and terrorists like you who are buried here.”
He also threatened opponents of the Iranian establishment abroad, saying: “This is where you have fled from... God willing, the day will come when you will be tried and punished in Islamic Iran under Islamic justice.”
Noury was released in 2024 as part of a prisoner exchange with Sweden and returned to Iran.
‘Macron called me once a month’, former Iranian president claims
Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was in office when the country signed a deal with world powers in 2015 to curb its civil nuclear programme, has shared new details about the aftermath of US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement three years later.
Speaking at an Iftar gathering with members of his government, he said French President Emmanuel Macron was in frequent contact with him and was trying to arrange a meeting between him and Trump.
Rouhani also spoke about the pressure Iran faced from the Trump administration and the US decision to leave the deal and reimpose economic sanctions on Iran.
He claimed that the withdrawal happened under Israeli pressure and that Trump was eager to meet him in person, especially during Rouhani’s visit to the United Nations in 2018.
“Mr Macron came to me and said, ‘I was with Trump. He wants us to meet, sit down, and solve the issue.’ I told him, ‘If Trump announces that he is ready to lift the sanctions, I will meet him,’” Rouhani was quoted as saying.
He added that Macron kept trying to make it happen: “When I returned [to Iran], Macron did not give up. He called me several times, almost once a month.”
According to Rouhani, Trump wanted to add Iran’s missile programme and the activities of Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East to the agreement, which Iran’s leader and top officials opposed.
Establishment claims success in soft war
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the sole media organisation in the country with a monopoly on all radio and television channels, has lauded what it refers to as Iran’s triumph over Western countries in a “soft war”.
Following the suspension of US funding for Persian-language opposition media outlets, Iranian government officials and establishment supporters welcomed the decision. Now, after reports of layoffs at the Persian services of Voice Of America and Radio Free Europe, Iranian state media have framed the development as a political victory.
The Young Journalists Club, affiliated with IRIB, published a report saying: “This is not just a minor change in the media landscape but a major victory against what has long been described as the West’s soft war tools and cultural influence projects targeting Iran and other independent nations.
“From Iran’s perspective, the closure of these networks is not just a retreat but proof of the failure of a project that never gained real traction among the Iranian people,” the report added.
Voice Of America (VOA), created during World War II, and Radio Free Europe, established during the Cold War, aimed to bring the "voice of America" around the world, particularly to authoritarian states.
Moscow and Beijing welcomed Trump’s executive order targeting the media outlets, seen for decades as pillars of American soft power, while the White House stated the decision would “ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda,” pointing to the VOA's "leftist bias".
Interrogators control judiciary, says former political prisoner
Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political activist and journalist who has been imprisoned many times for his writings, has explained how much control Iranian security interrogators have over the country’s judicial system.
Zeidabadi wrote on his Telegram page about the need to release all political prisoners, emphasising that their words and actions can only have a positive impact on Iranian society.
“When it comes to political prisoners, the country’s judicial system is centred around interrogators. There have been cases where the entire judicial system agrees to release certain prisoners, but the interrogator blocks it,” he wrote.
Zeidabadi shared a personal experience from 2010, when Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, then Tehran’s prosecutor, visited Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, a city located 30 km west of Tehran.
“He told me, ‘Your judge did everything he could to release you on bail, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t strong enough to stand up to your interrogator!’”
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