Life sentence Hamid Noury’s son, Majid Noury, traveled from Iran to Sweden to visit his father in custody in Stockholm on Thursday.
When it was time for the visit, which, according to the district court, was arranged by a Swedish-speaking friend, it turned out that he was not on the visitation list and that he could therefore not meet his father.
In connection with the visit, Majid Noury took pictures and filmed himself with his
mobile phone with the police house and the detention center in the background, and was thus arrested for illegal photography of protected objects.
This is evident from documents from the Stockholm district court that TV4 Nyheterna has seen.
Sentenced to daily fines
Majid Noury was arrested at 1pm last Thursday in connection with the photo shoot at the Kronoberg prison on Kungsholmen in Stockholm. He was subsequently arrested and released later on Sunday.
– He was deprived of his liberty because he would not be able to evade prosecution at large, says prosecutor Rickard Hofmann.
He was sentenced on Sunday to pay 40 daily fines. He must also pay a fee to the crime victim fund of SEK 1,000.
“He has illegally and in violation of special prohibitions depicted the protected object “Kvarteret Kronoberg etc” by filming and photographing the same,” writes the district court in the judgment.
Majid Noury denies the crime and believes that he did not know that it was forbidden to film at the scene. His mobile phone has been confiscated.
His lawyer Martin Persson tells TV4 Nyheterna that he has been in contact with the embassy.
– He was sentenced to a day’s fine, so it is gratifying even if his attitude is that he should not have been sentenced at all, says Martin Persson to TV4 Nyheterna and continues:
– I have been in contact with the embassy and talked to them, but basically just informed them that he is released and what the verdict was.
Iranian media
Over the Easter weekend, reports came from Hamid Noury’s daughter and several Iranian news agencies about the son’s arrest.
“After hours of not knowing about my brother who had gone to see my father… we found out that he was apparently arrested by the Swedish police,” X’s sister wrote.
“After intensive follow-up by the embassy and our country’s foreign ministry, Majid Nouri (son of Hamid Nouri), who was arrested by the Swedish police, was released today at lunchtime,” the Iranian embassy wrote on X on Sunday.
Majid Noury himself has described the incident on X, where he thanks the Iranian media and everyone who drew attention to the arrest.
– I was not allowed to contact my family or the Iranian embassy, he says in the video.
TV4 Nyheterna has tried to reach Majid Noury via his representative.
International law violations in Iran
The Stockholm District Court convicted Hamid Noury of gross violations of international law for his involvement in the execution of a large number of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988.
The Svea Court of Appeal determined the sentence against Iranian Hamid Noury in December 2023.
In Iran, Noury was an assistant prosecutor. It was in that role that, according to the district court verdict, he selected prisoners for a committee that then decided on execution. He is also said to have participated in the executions himself on a few occasions.
According to several observers, Iran has detained the Swedish EU official Johan Floderus with the aim of obtaining a prisoner exchange with Noury.
Floderus was arrested on a trip to Iran last spring and last weekend was charged with espionage.