Iran and Sweden swapped prisoners on Saturday, breaking a standoff that brought relief to families but concern over Sweden’s decision to free the first Iranian official convicted of crimes against humanity.
Iran has released Johan Floderus, 33, a European Union diplomat and Swedish national who was arrested in April 2022 in Tehran, as well as Saeed Azizi, a dual national who was arrested in 2023, the Swedish prime minister said.
“I am happy to announce that Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi are now on a plane bound for Sweden and will soon be reunited with their families,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on social media.
Mr Floderus had been charged with espionage and corruption and Mr Azizi with “gathering and collusion against national security”, charges which both have steadfastly denied and which human rights advocates have called trumped up.
In exchange, Sweden released Hamid Nouri, an Iranian judicial official who had been sentenced to life in a Swedish court for torture, war crimes and the mass execution of 5,000 dissidents in 1988, who were sent to the gallows without trial.
The exchange was coordinated with the help of Oman, according to a statement published by Oman’s state news agency. Prisoners from both sides were taken there before traveling to their homelands.
Upon landing in Tehran on Saturday, Mr. Nouri was greeted on the tarmac by several officials, a cleric and a wreath of flowers, state television reported. After a few brief remarks on the case, he suddenly raised his voice to say he had a message for terrorists, opposition dissidents and Israel.
“I’m Hamid Nouri, I’m in Iran, I’m with my family,” he shouted. “Where are you miserable people? You said that not even God can release Hamid Nouri and look he did.”
Iran routinely swaps prisoners with other countries, exchanging dual nationals or foreigners for Iranians held in prisons for committing crimes in those countries. But Mr Nouri’s case was notable as the first time an Iranian official had been convicted abroad for crimes committed inside Iran.
His conviction was also hailed at the time as a landmark legal case of cross-border justice in which war criminals can be arrested and tried outside their borders, under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Human rights lawyers said his case paved the way for indictments against officials from places like 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 by senior officials who follow the cases closely.
“Delighted with the news that our Swedish colleague Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi have been released from unjustified Iranian detention,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
But the exchange, particularly Mr Nouri’s release from Sweden, also sparked anger and concern over Iran’s reward for systematically arresting foreign nationals on trumped-up charges, usually of espionage or other political crimes, in order to extract concessions from the West. Countries.
“This was a travesty of justice,” said Gisu Nia, the president of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center in New Haven, Conn. protests by women”. He was referring to the mass protests in 2022 that began with the death of a young woman in the custody of morality police after she allegedly violated the mandatory hijab rule.
Ms Nia added, “It’s horrible for victims of atrocity crimes in general”, adding that it was also a disincentive for other countries to take on complex and often expensive cases under universal jurisdiction.
On Saturday, family members of both those victims and dozens of others from around the world who remain in Iran’s custody 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 on death row on murky charges of espionage and helping Israel kill nuclear scientists, are Swedish citizens. Mr Djalali has denied the charges against him.
Mr. Djalili’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, said in a telephone interview that she was shocked to hear from the media about the exchange this morning and devastated that her husband had been left behind.
“The Swedish government abandoned my husband,” she said. “If you are going to release a murderer with 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 saying he heard the news in the Iranian media and was disheartened 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 false political charges, underlined the complexity of such exchanges.
“I am very happy for Johan and his family, as well as for Saeed,” he said. “They didn’t deserve any of this. But I am saddened for Ahmadreza and everyone else who was left behind. Nothing about hostage diplomacy is fair.”
Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian humanitarian who was jailed in Tehran for a time with Mr. Floderus before being released last year in another prisoner exchange, said it was a bleak moment he knew all too well.
“When hostages are freed, there is always a combination of joy and pain,” he said. “When some are freed, it means others are not. We know that families who are still waiting for their loved ones are experiencing a very bittersweet moment today.”
The prisoner swap also won’t help the thousands of Iranians who are unjustly and often brutally detained by the government.
For Iran, Mr Nouri’s return from Sweden is a major coup.
Mr. Nouri was a judicial officer at Gohardasht prison near Tehran, where 5,000 people were executed in the 1988 purge. He prepared the list of names for a so-called three-official death commission, which included the future president, Ebrahim Raisi. He then escorted the blindfolded prisoners from their cells to the commission room for sentencing and then to the gallows.
He was lured to Sweden in 2019 by his ex-son-in-law in coordination with international law experts and the victims’ families. He was arrested on landing in Stockholm under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction and subsequently found guilty of war crimes. He was sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court in 2022 and appealed his sentence at the time of his release.
Christina Andersoncontributed reporting from Stockholm. Vivian Nereim contributed to the report.
