Sweden and Iran carried out a prisoner swap on Saturday, officers mentioned, by which Sweden freed a former Iranian official convicted for his position in a mass execution within the Eighties, whereas Iran freed two Swedes who have been being held. over there.
The prisoner change was brokered by Oman, the nation’s International Ministry mentioned in an announcement. “Omani efforts resulted in either side agreeing to a mutual launch, as these launched have been transferred from Tehran and Stockholm,” he mentioned.
Sweden freed former Iranian official Hamid Noury, who had been convicted for his position in a mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. Iran’s official IRNA information company revealed photographs of Noury arriving at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, the place he was acquired by his household on a crimson carpet.
In the meantime, Swedish residents Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi, who had been detained in Iran, have been launched and flown again to Sweden, the place they arrived on Saturday night.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson mentioned the couple have been in good situation beneath the circumstances and had been reunited with their households.
“Iran used them each as pawns in a cynical recreation of negotiations with the intention of getting Iranian nationwide Hamid Noury launched from jail in Sweden. He was convicted of great crimes dedicated in Iran within the Eighties,” Kristersson mentioned. it is a assertion.
“As Prime Minister I’ve a particular duty for the safety of Swedish residents. That’s the reason the federal government has labored intensively on this problem, along with the Swedish safety companies, which negotiated with Iran.”
WAR CRIMES
Noury, 63, was arrested at a Stockholm airport in 2019 and later sentenced to life in jail for warfare crimes for the mass execution and torture of political prisoners at Gohardasht jail in Karaj, Iran, in 1988. He denied the fees. .
An Iranian International Ministry spokesperson described Noury as a hostage in an announcement to native media, saying his imprisonment was attributable to an “unlawful determination by a Swedish court docket that lacked legitimacy.”
Noury advised reporters that his case had been sophisticated and delicate. “They mentioned that not even God can free Hamid Noury, however he did it,” he advised reporters upon his arrival in Iran.
The Nationwide Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of teams against the federal government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, mentioned it appeared that Sweden had given in to blackmail and hostage-taking techniques in a transfer that will embolden Tehran.
Lawyer Kenneth Lewis, who represented a dozen plaintiffs within the Noury case in Sweden, mentioned his shoppers weren’t consulted and have been “horrified and devastated” by Noury’s launch.
“That is an affront to your entire judicial system and to all those that have participated in these trials,” he advised Reuters.
Lewis mentioned his shoppers have been sympathetic to the Swedish authorities’s efforts to return its residents residence, however mentioned Noury’s launch was “completely disproportionate.”
‘HELL ON EARTH’
Floderus, an worker of the European Union, was arrested in Iran in 2022 and charged with spying for Israel and “corruption on earth,” against the law that carries the dying penalty.
Saeed Azizi, a twin Swedish-Iranian nationwide, was arrested in Iran in November 2023, for what Sweden known as “illicit motives.”
At a late-night press convention, Kristersson known as for the couple to now be allowed time alone with their households.
“These are two individuals who have skilled hell on earth,” he mentioned. “I perceive how that is acquired with combined emotions, particularly amongst Swedes who come from Iran. It was not a straightforward deliberation that the federal government needed to make, however typically it’s a must to do tough issues and do the correct factor,” Kristersson mentioned. .
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the discharge of the 2 Swedes from “unjustified Iranian custody” and congratulated Sweden for its work to free them.
One other twin Swedish-Iranian nationwide, Ahmadreza Djalali, arrested in 2016, stays in an Iranian jail. Djalali, an emergency physician, was arrested in 2016 throughout an educational go to to Iran.
Swedish International Minister Tobias Billstrom mentioned Iran had refused to even contemplate Djalali a Swedish citizen after he acquired citizenship within the Nordic nation, the place he lived and labored earlier than his arrest, whereas in an Iranian jail. .
“To Djalali and her household, I want to say that the safety companies went to nice lengths to have her husband and father be a part of in the present day’s operation,” Billstrom mentioned.
“There isn’t any doubt that we’ll proceed to work tirelessly to convey residence residents like Djalali,” Billstrom added.
