Hamid Nouri breaks record for solitary confinement in Sweden

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
1 Jun 2023 11:44

Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian official illegally detained in Sweden, breaks the solitary confinement record in Sweden with 1,295 days of isolation.

A protest rally against the life sentence for Hamid Nouri was held on July 28, 2022, in front of the Swedish Embassy in Tehran. (ISNA)

A new report says Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judiciary official who has been illegally detained in Sweden, has broken the all-time record of solitary confinement in the history of the Nordic country according to a new recent report.

Aftonbladet, the Swedish newspaper that reported on the issue, cited Nouri's lawyer Thomas Bodstrom who explained that Nouri had, as of Wednesday, spent 1,295 days in solitary confinement. It is worth noting that the isolated cell has an area of 7 square meters.

Bodstrom underscored that Nouri was “the most isolated prisoner” in the history of Sweden, as he has broken the record for solitary confinement.

Nouri's health worsening as illegal detention continues

Nouri's lawyers said, earlier in April, that his health has deteriorated as a result of the treatment he has received in Swedish detention centers, stressing that his 3.5 years in solitary confinement is the longest any person has ever spent in any jail in any country to date.

Hanna Larsson, Nouri's lawyer, told the Mizan news agency that the 3.5 years Nouri spent in detention should qualify as record-breaking and that the treatment he is subjected to by jailers was "very heinous."

The lawyer added that Nouri's family is prohibited from visiting him, as Swedish authorities have inhumanely rejected the request. "He is entitled to have in-person and virtual meetings, but no meeting is held," Larsson said, noting that the prison authorities have also deprived Nouri of accessing his laptop and iPad over the past weeks.

She further said that Swedish authorities prevented Nouri from accessing crucial documents required for his own defense at the court, noting that the prosecutor had falsely claimed that the documents were handed over to him. "These documents were of great value to our client and now we cannot defend him as we should and be ready for defense," Larsson said.

She added that her client's health has been deteriorating, noting that Nouri's eyesight has weakened severely and that the latter had attempted to arrange an appointment with an ophthalmologist but the request was once more inhumanely denied.

Nouri's other lawyer, Thomas Bodström, confirmed all of Larsson's remarks and said that the trial process has so far been very unfair.

He was immediately arrested upon his arrival in Sweden in April 2019. He was accused by the terror organization Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group of alleged crimes against humanity.

On 14 July 2022, Swedish prosecutors called for his life imprisonment and expulsion with a permanent bar from re-entering Sweden and ordered him to pay damages amounting to 1.2 million SEK.

According to Swedish laws, a foreign individual can't be tried in internal courts under international legitimacy if they (the foreigner) are present in the country against their will, which is the defense the lawyers of Nouri claimed, saying that their client arrived in Sweden against his own will.