Iran and Sweden announced on Saturday an exchange of prisoners with the releases of a Swedish diplomat from the European Union, detained by Tehran, and that of a senior Iranian official, imprisoned in Sweden.
The released detainees were on their way back to their country on Saturday afternoon, via Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, which served as an intermediary in negotiations between Stockholm and Tehran, according to the Omani press agency.
Iran said Hamid Noury, a former senior prison official, had been released and would return to the country late this afternoon. “Hamid Noury, illegally detained in Sweden since 2019, is free and will return in a few hours,” said the head of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, Kazem Gharibabadi, in a message posted on X.
This 63-year-old Iranian was arrested in 2019 in Stockholm and then sentenced to life imprisonment in the Scandinavian country for his role in the mass executions of opponents ordered by Tehran in 1988.
For its part, Sweden announced the releases of Johan Floderus, an EU diplomat detained in Iran since April 2022, accused of espionage and who risked being sentenced to death, and of Saeed Azizi, arrested in November 2023 .
They are on their way back “and will finally be reunited with their loved ones,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
The prisoners’ file has greatly strained relations between Sweden and Iran in recent years, which demanded the release of Hamid Noury and criticized a biased trial.
This exchange of detainees comes three days after the release of Frenchman Louis Arnaud, who had been detained in Iran since September 2022. Iran still detains eight Europeans, including three French people.
Governments, human rights groups and families of foreign nationals detained in Iran have accused Tehran of engaging in “hostage diplomacy.” Iran, for its part, claims that they are detained on the basis of court decisions.
Relations between Iran and Sweden were recently strained when Swedish intelligence services assured, in early June, that Iran had recruited Swedish gang members to commit “acts of violence”, particularly against foreign interests. Israelis in Sweden, which Tehran denies.
The exchange of prisoners comes two weeks before the presidential election in Iran, organized after the death of President Ebrahim Raïssi in a helicopter accident on May 19.
