Iran and Sweden have concluded a prisoner exchange, according to the Omani government, which mediated the process.
Citizens of both countries were flown to Muscat, the capital of the small Persian Gulf state, on Saturday.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed that two Swedish citizens were returning home.
According to information from Tehran, Hamid N., sentenced to life in prison in Sweden for the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran in the late 1980s, has been released. The 63-year-old Iranian was sentenced in Stockholm in July 2022.
There has been no confirmation of this from Stockholm. Kristersson limited himself to saying that Iran made the two Swedes “a pawn in a cynical negotiation game with the aim of freeing Iranian citizen Hamid N”. from Swedish custody.
EU officials Johan Floderus and Said Asisi, sentenced to five years in prison in Iran, have been released by Tehran, Kristersson said. At least one other Swedish citizen, doctor Ahmad Resa Jalali, is still in an Iranian prison.
EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell welcomed his release at X on Saturday.
“We rejoice at the news of the release of fellow EU citizen Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi. We thank the Swedish and Omani authorities,” said the EU’s top diplomat.
“Other EU citizens are still arbitrarily detained in Iran. We will continue to work for their freedom together with the EU Member States involved,” he added, referring to the member states. Borrell, the Swedish and Omani authorities.
Prisoner exchange promptly criticized
Mariam Claren, daughter of German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi, who was imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Ewin prison, expressed her shock on Platform X.
“Let me be clear,” she wrote, “I am happy for the freed hostages and their families. But what message did the EU send to Tehran? More people will be taken hostage, the hostages left behind could be executed. And the important majority: what a slap in the face to the families of Nouri’s victims.”
Oman has become known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” and strives to support political conflicts in the region as a neutral actor. The country has mediated between Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, and in talks between the West and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have cooled considerably recently due to diplomatic affairs. In May last year, Tehran executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident accused of terrorist activities. Critics have repeatedly accused Iran of trying to free Hamid N. by arresting Swedish citizens.
