An opinion by Hamid Enayat, political scientist and Iran specialist
The release of Hamid Noury, one of the main perpetrators of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, 90% of whom were members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), by the Swedish government is completely unjustifiable. It represents a flagrant betrayal of human rights and an affront to the rule of law and universal jurisdiction, as well as to the Swedish judicial authority that had tried one of the perpetrators of the massacre.
This decision only encourages the religious dictator to continue his hostage-taking, crimes against humanity and terrorist activities. Returning this criminal to the religious dictatorship also means guaranteeing the mullahs in Iran that terrorists and executioners such as Assadollah Assadi – the Iranian diplomat in office, sentenced to life in prison by the Belgian courts, for a failed attempt to blow up a peaceful rally led by Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, in the suburbs of Paris, and eventually released by the Belgian government – even if handed over to the courts of other countries, will be released through hostage-taking.
Blackmail and pressure
In the more than four decades that the mullahs’ regime has been in power in Iran, it has not spent a single moment without resorting to hostage-taking. It is a big mistake to think that you can tame a crocodile by feeding it. In this context, before the release of the hostages in France, a detailed four-page article entitled “Child soldiers and the People’s Mojahedin” (the main Iranian resistance force against the religious dictatorship) was published in the newspaper The worldand a film on the same subject was shown in Sweden to discredit the MEK as a precondition for the release of the hostages, to satisfy the crocodile.
Iran and Sweden carry out prisoner exchange
Has not the history of Nazi Germany and other European nations sufficiently taught the world the high and bloody price that humanity had to pay in an attempt to appease the crocodile?
The use of hostage-taking to exchange some of the regime’s most dangerous terrorist elements, imprisoned in other countries, is a means of blackmail and pressure on these countries. Taking hostages for this regime is partly a survival strategy.
45 years of hostage taking
Founded on religious dogmas, the Iranian religious dictatorship, heir to the Middle Ages, is incapable of generating economic prosperity which requires a relatively democratic environment, incompatible with the nature of the religious dictator. From its birth, the regime therefore opted for warmongering policies and the taking of hostages abroad in order to mask internal repression, thus ensuring its survival and the sustainability of the religious dictatorship. The treatment of women in Iran is the best testimony to this reactionary mentality.
Two Swedes return to Sweden after prisoner swap with Iran
Mohammad Ali Jaafari, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, acknowledged in his speech on November 4, 2009, that the hostage-taking of diplomats at the US embassy was premeditated and had the full agreement of Khamenei, the head of the authorities. He claimed that without the hostages, the regime would have fallen within the first ten years of its existence. “Only a few of our leaders and a limited number of our revolutionary leaders, including the Supreme Leader (Khamenei), were firmly in favor of this revolutionary movement”did he declare.
A very effective way
To free European citizens held hostage in Iran, a firm approach must be adopted towards the Iranian regime. Relations, even diplomatic ones, must be made conditional on the release of the hostages. It is through a policy of firmness that we can succeed, without harmful side effects, in getting the mullahs to respect international law and reciprocal relations with other nations.
