PODCAST - Eye for Iran: Hostage Diplomacy and Hamid Nouri
Convicted war criminal Hamid Nouri is back on Iranian soil after being released by Sweden in a prisoner swap deal with Tehran on June 16.
Convicted war criminal Hamid Nouri is back on Iranian soil after being released by Sweden in a prisoner swap deal with Tehran on June 16.
In this week’s episode of ‘Eye for Iran,' we discuss how Iran’s hostage diplomacy is outplaying the West.
Host Negar Mojtahedi spoke with Iranian-Canadian human rights lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz whose uncle, Mehrdad Ashtari, was killed during the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners that involved Nouri.
Alongside Sharooz is Mariam Claren, a German-Iranian fighting for her mother, Nahid Taghavi, a German national who has been unlawfully detained in Iran’s notorious Evin prison since 2020.
Shahrooz was a young child in Iran when his mother’s brother was imprisoned, tortured and hanged as a political dissident - to this day he said he doesn’t even know where he’s buried.
Nouri’s conviction of crimes against humanity, under universal jurisdiction, for his role in the 1988 massacre that saw more than 5 thousand political prisoners killed, was a modicum of justice for Shahrooz and other families.
He said “the fact that somebody was finally meant to pay for this crime was meaningful,” but now after Nouri’s release, he feels “deeply hurt” and “abandoned."
Claren, whose mother - a retired architect, remains in Evin prison in the same ward as Noble Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, said the West should not give into hostage diplomacy. She said her own mother, wouldn’t want to be exchanged in such a way.
She questions why Ahmadreza Jalali, a Swedish-Iranian doctor on death row in Iran, was excluded from the prisoner swap.
“Maybe he just wasn’t Swedish enough,” said Claren.
Claren said “we should address the elephant in the room. Why did Johan Floderus, who is part of an EU delegation of the Middle East, who knows about the hostage diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran, travel as a tourist to Iran?”
For more, watch or listen to Episode 3 of 'Eye for Iran.'
Dubbed "layette-gate" in 2022, Ghalibaf was embroiled in controversy when his wife, daughter, and son-in-law returned from a trip to Turkey with substantial excess luggage, reportedly including items such as a baby bed and stroller readily available in Tehran.
Critics levied accusations of hypocrisy against Ghalibaf, pointing out discrepancies between his public rhetoric advocating support for domestic products and patience during the country's worst economic crisis while simultaneously allowing his family to travel abroad to purchase luxury goods.
As her father now vies for the presidency in the upcoming June 28 elections, on Tuesday, his daughter Maryam made a televised attempt to clear her family's name, but instead, the public's outrage against Ghalibaf only intensified.
She admitted to her trip to Turkey but vehemently denied the purpose, stating, "I did travel to Turkey, but not to buy layette." In a bid to clear her father's name, she said, "They were unable to criticize him directly, so they fabricated falsehoods about his family."
The saga in 2022 was worsened after the revelation of a video from the 2017 presidential debates showing Ghalibaf admonishing a former minister for traveling to Italy to purchase baby clothes, asserting bleakly, "You think our economy will improve, but it never will!"
Civil activist Vahid Ashtari, who initially disclosed details of the trip, responded to Ghalibaf's daughter's appeal on Wednesday by sharing airport documents purportedly indicating they were carrying 294 kilograms of luggage.
“Mr. Ghalibaf's daughter said on TV that she went to Turkey, but not for shopping. Here is the image from the Meraj Airlines system that I am sharing for the first time. They should clarify what these 294 kilograms of baggage registered under her husband’s name contained - 20 packages and luggage!” Ashtari wrote on X.
In the interview, Ghalibaf’s daughter also stated that those who fabricated lies about her had been punished. However, Ashtari shared a document purportedly indicating his acquittal in the "layette-gate" case.
Meanwhile, the IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency attempted to vindicate Ghalibaf in response to Ashtari's tweet by posting an image, purportedly released by Meraj Airlines, "refuting false rumors about the weight of Ghalibaf's family luggage" and indicating potential "judicial action against these allegations."
The combined weight of the luggage depicted in Tasnim's image for the family amounts to approximately 130 kilograms, a detail that prompted some users to argue that it is still a substantial amount.
It is not the first time Ghalibaf's daughter has been at the center of scandal. In 2016, the Memari News website, owned by prominent whistleblower Yashar Soltani, reported that Lavizan Park in Tehran had been closed for several days for her wedding celebration while her father was mayor of Tehran.
Memari News detailed how the municipal forces of Tehran's fourth district were on alert for the wedding, utilizing municipal resources to illuminate Lavizan Forest Park at the cost of local authorities.
In Tuesday's television interview, Ghalibaf's daughter also denied the allegations as false, stating, "These lies ruined our wedding celebration."
In 2019, Soltani was imprisoned for exposing financial corruption within the Tehran Municipality during Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's tenure and for revealing details about the wedding. Earlier this month, Soltani was rearrested for his reporting on corruption.
Back in 2022, a leaked audio file of IRGC commanders discussing extensive financial corruption involving Ghalibaf during his tenure as Tehran mayor also caused an uproar in Iran, reflecting the deep connections between the IRGC and the country's political echelons.
