Sweden frees convicted former Iranian official Hamid Noury

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Sweden has freed convicted former Iranian official Hamid Noury, Iran’s top human rights official Kazem Gharib Abadi said on X on Saturday.

He said Noury, who had been convicted for his part in a mass execution of regime opponents in Iran in 1988, will be back in Iran in a few hours.

A Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson had no immediate comment on the reports.

Swedish PM speaks on the hostage-prisoner exchange deal

Separately, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced that Iran detainees Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi were on a plane back to Sweden.

“Iran used both of them as tools in a cynical negotiation game to secure the release of Iranian citizen Hamid Nouri from prison in Sweden. He was convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s,” the Swedish prime minister said.

Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

“As Prime Minister, I have a special responsibility for the safety of Swedish citizens. Therefore, the government has acted intensively on the matter, together with Swedish security services who negotiated with Iran.”

The deal was completed through the mediation of Oman, according to the official news agency of the sultanate, Walla reported.

In 2022, Noury was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Stockholm court for his role in the mass executions of Iranian regime opponents in 1988, at the end of the war against Iraq. He was identified as having served as the deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison outside the city of Karaj at that time.

Of the Swedes who were released, Floderus was an employee with the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS), and was arrested in Iran in April 2022 during a personal trip to visit friends.

His arrest was kept secret for over a year by his friends and family, before it went public in September 2023. He was accused of espionage by Iranian prosecutors, who never presented any evidence to support the claims.

Azizi, a Swedish-Iranian dual citizen, was arrested by Iranian officials in November 2023. In February, the organization Human Rights Activists in Iran said that Azizi had been sentenced to five years in prison by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security,” according to the Washington Post.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell reacted to their release on X, and said, “We rejoice at the news of the liberation of EU colleague & citizen Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi. We thank Swedish & Omani authorities.”

Borrell added, “Other EU citizens are still arbitrarily detained in Iran. We’ll continue to work for their freedom together w/ EU MS involved.”

Another Iranian-Swedish citizen still remains detained by Iran, Ahmadreza Djalali, an expert on disaster medicine, since his arrest in 2016. Djalali faces possible execution.

He was convicted on charges of “corruption on Earth” in 2017, according to the Washington Post. Amnesty International spoke out against his arrest, and said his trial was “grossly unfair” in Revolutionary Court.

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