Iran and Sweden conducted a prisoner swap on Saturday, resulting in the release of Hamid Nouri, who was convicted of war crimes over the 1988 mass executions in Iran, in exchange for Johan Floderus, a Swede working for the EU’s diplomatic corps, and Saeed Azizi, another man held by Tehran, reported AP.
The exchange was mediated by Oman, as per confirmed by the country’s news agency.
Iran released Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi, with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirming their release.
“They are now on a plane home to Sweden, and will soon be reunited with their families,” Kristersson wrote on the social media platform X.
Floderus was arrested in April 2022 at Tehran airport while returning from a vacation with friends, representing another instance of Tehran using foreigners or dual nationality individuals as negotiating tools with the West.
Azizi’s case did not gain the same level of prominence as Floderus’. According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, the dual Iranian-Swedish national was sentenced to five years in prison in February by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security.” The group also reported that Azizi has cancer.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported that Nouri was already freed and preparing to return to Tehran.
In 2022, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Nouri to life imprisonment for his involvement in the 1988 mass executions, identifying him as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the Gohardasht prison near Karaj, Iran. The mass executions marked a grim period at the end of Iran’s war with Iraq, targeting political prisoners and militants in what would be known as the “death commissions.”
International rights groups estimate that around 5,000 people were executed during this period. Iran has never fully acknowledged the executions, which were reportedly carried out on the orders of Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. Some argue, however, that other top officials were effectively in charge in the months leading to Khomeini’s death in 1989.
Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s late President who died in a helicopter crash in May, was also implicated in the mass executions.
The exchange was mediated by Oman, as per confirmed by the country’s news agency.
Iran released Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi, with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirming their release.
“They are now on a plane home to Sweden, and will soon be reunited with their families,” Kristersson wrote on the social media platform X.
Floderus was arrested in April 2022 at Tehran airport while returning from a vacation with friends, representing another instance of Tehran using foreigners or dual nationality individuals as negotiating tools with the West.
Azizi’s case did not gain the same level of prominence as Floderus’. According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, the dual Iranian-Swedish national was sentenced to five years in prison in February by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security.” The group also reported that Azizi has cancer.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported that Nouri was already freed and preparing to return to Tehran.
In 2022, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Nouri to life imprisonment for his involvement in the 1988 mass executions, identifying him as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the Gohardasht prison near Karaj, Iran. The mass executions marked a grim period at the end of Iran’s war with Iraq, targeting political prisoners and militants in what would be known as the “death commissions.”
International rights groups estimate that around 5,000 people were executed during this period. Iran has never fully acknowledged the executions, which were reportedly carried out on the orders of Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. Some argue, however, that other top officials were effectively in charge in the months leading to Khomeini’s death in 1989.
Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s late President who died in a helicopter crash in May, was also implicated in the mass executions.
