Iran and Sweden exchanged prisoners on Saturday, breaking a standoff that brought relief to families but also raised concerns about Sweden’s decision to release the first Iranian official convicted of crimes against Iran. humanity.
Iran has released Johan Floderus, 33, a European Union diplomat and Swedish national, arrested in April 2022 in Tehran, as well as Saeed Azizi, a dual national arrested in 2023, said the Swedish Prime Minister.
“It is with pleasure that I can announce that Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi are now on a plane back to Sweden and will soon be reunited with their families,” said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. said on social networks.
Mr. Floderus has been accused of espionage and corruption, and Mr. Azizi of “gathering and collusion against national security,” charges that both have consistently denied and human rights advocates have called fabricated.
In exchange, Sweden released Hamid Nouri, an Iranian judicial official who had been sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court for torture, war crimes and the mass execution of 5,000 dissidents in 1988, sent to the gallows without trial.
The exchange was coordinated with the help of Oman, according to a statement published by the official Omani news agency. Prisoners from both sides were taken there before returning to their home countries.
Upon landing in Tehran on Saturday, Mr. Nouri was welcomed on the tarmac by several officials, a cleric and a wreath of flowers, state television showed. After some brief remarks on the matter, he suddenly raised his voice saying he had a message for terrorists, opposition dissidents and Israel.
“My name is Hamid Nouri, I’m in Iran, I’m with my family,” he shouted. “Where are you, you despicable people? You said that even God could not free Hamid Nouri, and you found that he did.
Iran regularly swaps prisoners with other countries, exchanging dual nationals or foreigners for Iranians held in prison for committing crimes in those countries. But Mr. Nouri’s case was notable in that it was the first time an Iranian official had been convicted abroad for crimes committed in Iran.
His conviction was also hailed at the time as a landmark legal case in cross-border justice in which war criminals can be arrested and convicted outside their own borders based on the principle of universal jurisdiction. Human rights lawyers said his case opened the way to charges against officials in countries including Syria, Sudan and Russia, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
News of the exchange was welcomed by the Swedes’ families, as well as senior officials who are closely following the case.
“Delighted to learn that our Swedish colleague Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi have been released from unjustified Iranian detention,” said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
But the exchange, particularly Sweden’s release of Mr. Nouri, also sparked anger and concern about rewarding Iran for its systematic arrest of foreign nationals based on fabricated allegations, usually espionage or other political crimes, in order to obtain concessions from Western countries.
“It was an affront to justice,” said Gissou Nia, president of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center in New Haven, Connecticut. “There has been an ongoing demand for countries with universal jurisdiction to open investigations into Iranian officials, including the women-led protests. She was referring to mass protests in 2022 It began with the death of a young woman while in the custody of the morality police after allegations that she violated the mandatory hijab rule.
Ms Nia added: “This is horrible for victims of atrocity crimes in general,” adding that it also deters other countries from undertaking complex and often costly cases under universal jurisdiction.
On Saturday, family members of both those victims and dozens of others around the world still detained by Iran were also outraged by the exchange, with many taking to social media to express their frustration. Several of those still imprisoned, including Ahmadreza Djalali, a scientist sentenced to death on obscure charges of espionage and aiding Israel in the assassination of nuclear scientists, are Swedish citizens. Mr. Djalali denied the accusations against him.
Mr. Djalili’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, said in a telephone interview that she was shocked when she heard the media about this morning’s exchange and devastated that her husband had been left behind .
“The Swedish government abandoned my husband,” she said. “If you want to free a murderer who has the blood of 5,000 people on his hands, you must demand the release of all Swedish citizens and all European citizens.” She said her husband called her today from prison to say he had heard the news in Iranian media and was demoralized that Sweden had left him behind.
Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker, spent six years in prison in Iran on trumped-up political charges, highlighted the complexity of such exchanges.
“I’m really delighted for Johan and his family, and for Saeed,” he said. “They didn’t deserve any of this. But I am upset for Ahmadreza and all the others left behind. Nothing about hostage diplomacy is fair.
Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian humanitarian who was in prison in Tehran for a time with Mr. Floderus before has been freed last year, during another prisoner exchange, said it was a dark moment he knew all too well himself.
“When hostages are released, there is always a mixture of joy and pain,” he said. “When some are released, that means others are not. We know that families who are still waiting for their loved ones are experiencing a very bittersweet moment today.
Nor will exchanging prisoners help the thousands of Iranians who are unjustly and often brutally detained by the government.
For Iran, bringing Mr. Nouri back from Sweden is a major coup.
Mr. Nouri was a judicial official at Gohardasht prison, near Tehran, where 5,000 people were executed during the 1988 purge. He prepared the list of names for a so-called death committee made up of three officials, including the future president, Ebrahim Raisi. He then escorted the prisoners, blindfolded, from their cells to the committee room for sentencing, and then to the gallows.
He was lured to Sweden in 2019 by his former son-in-law in coordination with international law experts and the victims’ families. He was arrested upon landing in Stockholm under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction and next convicted of war crimes. He was sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court in 2022 and was appealing his conviction at the time of his release.
Christine Andersoncontributed reporting from Stockholm. Viviane Néréim reports contributed.
