An Iranian convicted of war crimes in Sweden has been released as part of a prisoner swap between the two countries.
Hamid Noury, who was serving a life sentence, returns to Tehran while Johan Floderus, Swedish diplomat and dual national Saeed Azizi, is on his way to Stockholm.
Mr. Noury was arrested in Sweden in 2019 and convicted of involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran more than three decades ago.
Mr Floderus was arrested in Iran two years ago on espionage charges while Mr Azizi was arrested last November and sentenced to five years in prison.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have deteriorated since Mr Noury’s conviction.
Announcement of the exchange, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Iran had made Mr Floderus and Mr Azizi “both pawns in a cynical negotiating game, with the aim of securing the release of Iranian citizen Hamid Noury from prison in Sweden”.
He added: “He is convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s.”
Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, On Saturday, Mr. Noury had been illegally detained in Sweden but was now free and returning to Iran.
Mr. Noury was accused of committing war crimes and murders in 1988 when, according to Swedish prosecutors, he was an assistant deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj.
He was the first person to be prosecuted for participating in the execution of thousands of prisoners, something the Iranian establishment has never officially acknowledged.
In 1988, the People’s Mojahedin (MEK), an Iraqi-backed left-wing opposition group, attacked Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, issued orders to execute all prisoners who were loyal or sympathetic to the group.
Human rights groups estimate that between 2,800 and 5,000 women and men were executed at some sites, including Gohardasht Prison, between July and September 1988.
Mr Noury, 63, was arrested after arriving at Stockholm airport on a flight from Iran. He denied the charges against him but was found guilty of “serious violations of international humanitarian law and murder.”
It was judged under the principle of universal jurisdiction which allows countries to prosecute people for serious crimes against international law committed elsewhere.
This includes war crimes, genocide, torture and crimes against humanity.
Mr Floderus, 33, faced the death penalty after his arrest in Iran in 2022 on espionage charges while on holiday.
Mr. Azizi, an Iranian-Swedish national in his sixties, was found guilty of “assembly and collusion against national security”.
Oman helped negotiate the prisoner swap and played a key role in the release of another European national last week. French banker Louis Arnaud was released after two years of detention in Iran.
