As part of a controversial prisoner exchange, Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus, who had been imprisoned in Iran for over two years, and another Swedish prisoner were released from prison and returned to Sweden.
“They have been through hell on earth and are now able to be with their loved ones again,” said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Stockholm on Saturday evening. In return, an Iranian prison director who had been convicted in Sweden was released.
EU diplomat Floderus was arrested in April 2022 and faced the death penalty on espionage charges. The second Swede, Saeed Azizi, had been in custody in Iran since November 2023. Both landed at Stockholm airport on Saturday evening at around 7:20 p.m. The two were “in good shape considering the circumstances,” Prime Minister Kristersson continued. Floderus’ father Matts told the Swedish news agency TT that the family was “of course incredibly happy.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Josep Borrell expressed their relief at Floderus’ release. In exchange for Floderus and Azizi, Iranian Hamid Nuri, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Sweden, was released. According to a report by Iranian state television, Nuri landed in Tehran on Saturday afternoon (local time) and was received there by relatives and officials.
The 63-year-old former prison officer was arrested at Stockholm Airport in 2019 after Iranian dissidents in Sweden filed a complaint against him with the police. In 2022, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for “serious crimes against international law” and “murder.” Nuri himself has always denied the allegations. He described the accusations as “fabricated.”
The court in Sweden had considered it proven that Nuri was an assistant to the deputy prosecutor in a prison near Tehran at the time of the crime. Under an assumed name and in the role of assistant to the deputy prosecutor, he picked up prisoners and accompanied them to the execution committee and the execution site.
In the final phase of the Iran-Iraq War (1980 to 1988), thousands of Iranians were executed across the country. The executions of around 5,000 prisoners were carried out on the orders of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and were directed primarily against members of the banned opposition movement, the People’s Mujahedin.
Nuri’s release by Sweden as part of the prisoner exchange was criticized by Iranian opposition members living in exile. The People’s Mujahedin, which has been banned in Iran since 1981, said that Sweden would encourage Iran to “expand terrorism, hostage-taking and extortion.”
Sweden’s Prime Minister Kristersson expressed understanding for the criticism. “I understand that this prisoner exchange causes mixed feelings, not least among Swedes with an Iranian migration background,” Kristersson told reporters. It was “not an easy decision” for his government.
In a statement, Kristersson said Iran had used Foderus and Azizi as “pawns in a cynical negotiating game” to secure Nuri’s release. As head of government, he himself has a “special responsibility for the security of Swedish citizens.”
According to information from Oman, the agreement on the prisoner exchange was mediated by the Sultanate. The governments of the two states then agreed to release the citizens of the other state, reported the state-run Omani news agency.
Eight citizens of European countries remain incarcerated in Iranian prisons. Among them is the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who has been in prison since summer 2020 on terror charges – and was sentenced to death in February 2023.
