Sweden and Iran Change Prisoners in a Breakthrough Swap

Iran and Sweden exchanged prisoners on Saturday, breaking a logjam that introduced reduction to households but additionally raised concern about Sweden’s determination to launch the first-ever Iranian official to be convicted of crimes in opposition to humanity.

Iran launched Johan Floderus, 33, a European Union diplomat and Swedish nationwide, who was arrested in April 2022 in Tehran, in addition to Saeed Azizi, a twin nationwide arrested in 2023, the Swedish prime minister mentioned.

“It’s with pleasure that I can announce that Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi at the moment are on a aircraft house to Sweden, and can quickly be reunited with their households,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, mentioned on social media.

Mr. Floderus had been charged with espionage and corruption, and Mr. Azizi with “meeting and collusion in opposition to nationwide safety,” costs they’ve each persistently denied and that human rights advocates have referred to as fabricated.

In change, Sweden launched Hamid Nouri, an Iranian judiciary official who had been sentenced to life in a Swedish courtroom for torture, warfare crimes and the mass execution of 5,000 dissidents in 1988 who have been despatched to the gallows with out trial.

The swap was coordinated with the assistance of Oman, in response to a press release revealed by the Omani state information company. The prisoners on either side have been taken there earlier than touring on to their house nations.

Upon touchdown in Tehran on Saturday, Mr. Nouri was greeted on the tarmac by a number of officers, a cleric and a floral wreath, state tv confirmed. After some transient remarks concerning the case, he abruptly raised his voice saying he had a message for terrorists, opposition dissidents and Israel.

“I’m Hamid Nouri, I’m in Iran, I’m with my household,” he shouted. “The place are you despicable individuals? You mentioned even God can not launch Hamid Nouri, and see he did.”

Iran has usually exchanged prisoners with different nations, swapping twin nationals or foreigners for Iranians held in prisons for committing crimes in these nations. However Mr. Nouri’s case was notable in that it was the primary time an Iranian official had been convicted overseas for crimes dedicated inside Iran.

His conviction was additionally hailed on the time as a landmark authorized case of trans-border justice through which warfare criminals may be arrested and convicted outdoors their very own borders primarily based on the precept of common jurisdiction. Human rights attorneys mentioned his case paved the best way for costs in opposition to officers from locations like Syria, Sudan and Russia who have been accused of warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.

The information of the change was welcomed by the households of the Swedes, in addition to senior officers carefully following the instances.

“Delighted on the information that our Swedish colleague Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi have been launched from unjustified Iranian custody,” mentioned the president of the European Fee, Ursula von der Leyen.

However the swap, significantly the discharge by Sweden of Mr. Nouri, additionally triggered anger and concern over rewarding Iran for its systematic arrest of international nationals on fabricated allegations, normally of espionage or different political crimes, in an effort to extract concessions from Western nations.

“This was an affront to justice,” mentioned Gissou Nia, the chairwoman of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Heart in New Haven, Conn. “There was a standing request for nations which have common jurisdiction to open investigations into Iranian officers, together with for the women-led protests.” She was referring to the mass protests in 2022 that started with a younger lady’s dying within the custody of the morality police after allegations that she violated the obligatory hijab rule.

Ms. Nia added, “It’s horrible for victims of atrocity crimes normally,” including that it was additionally a disincentive for different nations to undertake advanced and infrequently pricey instances below common jurisdiction.

On Saturday, relations, each of these victims and of the handfuls of others from around the globe who stay in Iranian custody, have been additionally outraged by the change, with many taking to social media to precise their frustrations. A number of of these nonetheless imprisoned, together with Ahmadreza Djalali, a scientist on dying row on murky costs of spying and aiding Israel in assassinating nuclear scientists, are Swedish residents. Mr. Djalali has denied the costs in opposition to him.

Mr. Djalili’s spouse, Vida Mehrannia, mentioned in a phone interview that she was shocked when she heard from the information media of the change this morning and devastated that her husband had been left behind.

“The Swedish authorities deserted my husband,” she mentioned. “If you’ll launch a assassin with the blood of 5,000 individuals on his palms, you need to demand the discharge of all Swedish residents and all European residents.” She mentioned her husband referred to as her from jail in the present day saying he had heard the information within the Iranian information media and was demoralized that Sweden had left him behind.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose spouse, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity employee, spent six years in jail in Iran on false political costs, underscored the complexities of such swaps.

“I’m actually delighted for Johan and his household, and likewise Saeed,” he mentioned. “They didn’t deserve any of this. However I’m distraught for Ahmadreza and all of the others left behind. Nothing about hostage diplomacy is honest.”

Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian humanitarian employee who was in jail in Tehran for a while with Mr. Floderus earlier than he was launched final yr in one other prisoner change, mentioned this was a somber second he knew all too nicely himself.

“When hostages are freed, there’s at all times a mixture of pleasure and ache,” he mentioned. “When some get freed, it means others don’t. We all know that households nonetheless awaiting their family members are experiencing in the present day a really bittersweet second.”

The prisoner swap additionally received’t assist the hundreds of Iranians who’re unjustly and infrequently brutally detained by the federal government.

For Iran, getting Mr. Nouri again from Sweden is a significant coup.

Mr. Nouri was a judicial official at Gohardasht Jail close to Tehran, the place 5,000 individuals have been executed within the 1988 purge. He ready the listing of names for a so-called dying committee of three officers, which included the longer term president, Ebrahim Raisi. He then escorted the prisoners blindfolded from their cells to the committee room for sentencing, after which on to the gallows.

He was lured to Sweden in 2019 by his former son-in-law in coordination with worldwide legislation consultants and the households of the victims. He was arrested upon touchdown in Stockholm below the doctrine of common jurisdiction and subsequently discovered responsible of warfare crimes. He was sentenced to life in jail by a Swedish courtroom in 2022 and was interesting his sentence on the time of his launch.

Christina Andersoncontributed reporting from Stockholm. Vivian Nereim contributed reporting.