Iran and Sweden broke the deadlock on Saturday by exchanging prisoners, bringing relief to families but raising concerns that Tehran may succumb to its practice of taking foreign hostages on trumped-up charges to extract concessions.
The Iranian government has released Johan Floders (33), a European Union (EU) diplomat and Swedish national who was arrested in Tehran in April 2022, and Saeed Azizi, a dual national who was arrested in 2023, the Swedish Prime Minister announced.
“I am pleased that Johan Floders and Said Azizi are currently on a flight to Sweden and will soon be reunited with their families,” Prime Minister Ulf Christersson said. Said On social media.
In return, Sweden released Hamid Nouri, an Iranian judicial official who was serving a life sentence in a Swedish court for torture, war crimes and the mass execution of 5,000 dissidents who were hanged without trial in 1988.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Justice and Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights, announced the release in a post on X, saying he was happy to report that Nouri was “free and will return to Iran within the next few hours.”
The exchange was carried out with the cooperation of Oman, according to a statement released by the Omani State Press Agency, and both prisoners were transferred to Oman before flying to their home countries.
Froderas’ family said the young diplomat was on his way to Europe from Oman on Saturday afternoon.
The news was welcomed by the Swede’s family and government officials who have been following the case closely.
“We are pleased to report that our Swedish colleague Johan Floderus and compatriot Saeed Azizi have been released from unjust Iranian detention.” Said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Union and Sweden kept Floderus’ arrest in Tehran in April 2022 secret, but the New York Times broke the news of his detention in 2023, more than 500 days later.
But the exchange, and particularly Sweden’s release of Nouri, also sparked anger and concern that it represents reward for Iran’s systematic arrests of foreigners, usually on trumped-up charges of espionage and other political crimes, to extract concessions from Western countries.
At the time of his conviction, Nouri’s case was hailed as a landmark case for transnational justice, allowing war criminals to be arrested and convicted outside Iran’s borders for crimes against humanity. Human rights lawyers said at the time that Nouri’s case paved the way for prosecutions of officials accused of war crimes in Syria, Sudan, Russia and other countries.
Nouri was a judicial officer at Gohardasht prison near Tehran, where 5,000 people were executed in the 1988 purges. He prepared lists of names for the so-called Death Penalty Committee, a trio of officials that included future president Ebrahim Raisi, and led blindfolded prisoners from their cells to the committee room and, after the sentences were handed down, to the gallows.
On Saturday, the families of those victims, and those of dozens around the world who remain in Iranian custody, were outraged by the exchange and took to social media to air their frustration. Several of those still incarcerated are Swedish nationals, including scientist Ahmadreza Djalali, who is on death row on unclear charges of espionage and collaborating with Israel in the assassination of nuclear scientists. Djalali denies the charges.
“This is beyond shocking,” said Mariam Klaren, the daughter of Nahid Taghabeer, a German-Iranian dual national who has been held prisoner in Tehran for the past four years.Hamid Noori “He was involved in mass murders of political prisoners in the 1980s. He was convicted in an independent and fair trial in Sweden.”
Richard Ratcliffe underscored the complexity of such exchanges given that his wife, the Iranian-British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was imprisoned in Iran for six years on false political charges.
“I’m really happy for Yohan and his family and for Saeed,” he said. “They should not have to go through this, but my heart breaks for Ahmadreza and everyone else who is left behind. Nothing is fair in hostage diplomacy.”
Belgian humanitarian worker Olivier Vandegasteel, who was imprisoned for a time in a Tehran prison with Mr Floders before being released in another prisoner exchange last year, said it was a solemn moment he knew all too well.
“Whenever hostages are released, it’s a mixture of joy and sadness,” he said, “When some are released, others are not. We know families are experiencing a very bittersweet moment today as they continue to wait for their loved ones.”
A prisoner exchange would also not help the thousands of Iranians who are unjustly and often brutally detained by their government.
For Iran, bringing Nouri back from Sweden is a major achievement. His former son-in-law, working with international law experts and victims’ families, lured Nouri to Sweden in 2019. Upon his arrival in Stockholm, he was arrested under the rarely used principle of universal jurisdiction, which gives authorities of any country the power to arrest and try anyone suspected of serious violations of international law who travels to its territory.
He was found guilty of war crimes in a Swedish court in 2022 and sentenced to life imprisonment, and was appealing the sentence at the time of his release.
Vivian Nereim Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Farnaz Fassihi From New York.
