Iraj Mesdaghi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Iraj Mesdaghi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 31, 1960 Tehran, Iran |
| Occupations | Writer, activist |
| Website | http://irajmesdaghi.com |
Iraj Mesdaghi (Persian: ایرج مصداقی; born 1960) is an Iranian writer and human rights activist.[1] He has lived in Stockholm, Sweden since 1994. He was formerly a political prisoner.[2][1]
On 16 March 2026, Reza Pahlavi appointed him as part of a committee to draft rules for creating transitional justice institutions in a proposed post-Islamic-Republic transitional government of Iran, headed by Shirin Ebadi, and including Leyla Bahmany[3] and Afshin Ellian.[4][5]
Mesdaghi was born in 1960 in Tehran, Iran. As a teenager, he traveled to the United States to work with the Confederation of Iranian Students to revive the student movement unit. He returned to Iran after the Iranian revolution. He was imprisoned in the Ghazelhasar, Evin and Gohardasht prisons for over 10 years, from 1981 to 1991, on charges of supporting the People's Mujahedin of Iran.[6][7]
While in prison, Mesdaghi survived the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners in Iran.[8] After being released, he was forced to flee from Iran to Sweden in 1994. Mesdaghi was a member of the "Committee for the Observation and Use of Iranian Justice Data", a committee created in 2019 aiming at ethical use of a computer file leaked from Iranian authorities that contained a "register of all the arrests, imprisonments and executions carried by the Iranian authorities in the Tehran area over four decades".[1][9]
On 16 March 2026, Reza Pahlavi appointed Mesdaghi as a member of the Transitional Justice Regulations Drafting Committee, together with Shirin Ebadi, Leyla Bahmany[3] and Afshin Ellian, for developing rules for a transitional justice court and truth commission for Pahlavi's proposed post-Islamic-Republic transitional government of Iran.[4][5]
Cinematic presence
Mesdaghi was featured prominently in the documentaryThose Who Said No, directed by Nima Sarvestani. The film documents an international investigation of mass executions of political prisoners in Iran in the 1980s. It was shown at the IDFA.[10][11]
Involvement in Hamid Noury arrest
On 9 November 2019, the Swedish police apprehended Hamid Noury at Arlanda Airport after he was lured to Sweden by Iraj Mesdaghi. In 2019, Mesdaghi was contacted by an acquaintance of Noury and together, they began to devise a plan to lure Noury to Sweden. They wanted to bring him to Sweden, where he could be tried for the alleged crimes under universal jurisdiction, a legal precedent allowing for serious crimes to be tried in Swedish courts, regardless of where in the world they were committed. They arranged his flight ticket and led him to believe that he was coming to Sweden for sightseeing, a cruise, meeting women, and partying. Iraj Mesdaghi shared the plan with international law experts and lawyers, who in turn contacted the Swedish police. When Noury landed at Arlanda Airport in November 2019, he was arrested. He has been held in custody since then, and the crimes he has been accused of were examined in one of Sweden's largest war crime trials.
In early 2021, allegations of torture, inhumane treatment, murder, and war crimes were brought against Noury. He served as a deputy prosecutor and reportedly played a significant role in the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners. The charges against him became possible after the Swedish judicial system was granted permission to apply a so-called universal jurisdiction for crimes against international law, allowing prosecution of perpetrators regardless of where the crime was committed and regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators or victims. On 14 July 2022, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Hamid Noury to life imprisonment, and after serving the sentence, deportation for life.[12]
