Iran frees two Swedish prisoners, including EU diplomat, over jailed senior Iranian official

Iran and Sweden announced a prisoner exchange on Saturday, releasing a Swedish European Union diplomat detained by Tehran and a senior Iranian official jailed in Sweden. The released prisoners were returning to their country on Saturday afternoon via Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, which served as a mediator in negotiations between Stockholm and Tehran, the Oman Press Agency reported.

Iran said Hamid Nouri, a former senior prison official, has been released and will return to his country this evening. “Hamid Nouri, illegally detained in Sweden since 2019, is free and will return in a few hours,” Kazem Gharibabadi, head of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, said in a message published on the social network X.

The 63-year-old Iranian was arrested in 2019 in Stockholm and later sentenced to life in prison in the Scandinavian country for his role in the mass executions of opponents ordered by Tehran in 1988.

The diplomat faced the death penalty

For its part, Sweden announced the release of Johan Floderus, an EU diplomat detained in Iran since April 2022 on espionage charges and risking the death penalty, and Saeed Azizi, arrested in November 2023. They are returning “and will finally be reunited with their loved ones,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. The prisoners’ case has greatly strained relations in recent years between Sweden and Iran, which has demanded the release of Hamid Nouri and criticized the biased trial.

This exchange of detainees took place three days after the release of Frenchman Louis Arnault, who had been detained in Iran since September 2022. Eight Europeans are still held in Iran, including three Frenchmen: Cécile Kohler, her companion Jacques Paris and a third man whose identity is unknown. knows only the name, Olivier.

Governments, human rights groups and families of foreign nationals detained in Iran have accused Tehran of “hostage diplomacy.” Iran, for its part, claims that they are detained on the basis of court decisions.