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Sweden and Iran swap prisoners in groundbreaking deal {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Oman mediates prisoner release
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Sweden releases former Iranian judicial official
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Iranian convicted for involvement in 1988 mass executions
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Iran releases Swedish EU official and Swedish-Iranian dual citizen
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Sweden said both men were being unjustly detained in Iran.
Niklas Pollard and Johan Ahlander
STOCKHOLM – Sweden and Iran carried out a prisoner swap on Saturday, officials said, with Sweden releasing a former Iranian government official convicted of involvement in mass executions in the 1980s and Iran releasing two Swedes held in the country.
Oman's foreign ministry said in a statement that the prisoner swap was mediated by Oman. “Through Oman's efforts, the two sides agreed on the mutual release and those released were transferred from Tehran and Stockholm,” the ministry said.
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Sweden has released Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian government official convicted of involvement in the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. Iran's state news agency IRNA released footage of Nouri arriving at Tehran's Mehrabad airport and being given a red carpet welcome by his family.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christersson said in a statement that Swedish citizens Johan Floders and Saeed Azizi, who were detained in Iran, were on a flight returning to Sweden.
“Iran used both men as pawns in a cynical negotiating game to secure the release from a Swedish prison of Iranian national Hamid Nouri, who was convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s,” Kristerson said.
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“As prime minister, I have a special responsibility for the security of the Swedish people, which is why the government has been working hard on this issue together with the Swedish security services, who have been negotiating with Iran.”
Nouri, 63, was arrested at Stockholm airport in 2019 and later sentenced to life in prison for war crimes for carrying out mass executions and torture of political prisoners at Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988. He denies the charges.
In a statement to local media, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abiy Khalil described Nouri as a hostage and said his imprisonment was the result of an “illegitimate and illegal Swedish court decision”.
Nouri told reporters upon arriving in Iran that his case was complex and delicate. “They said not even God could free Hamid Nouri, but he managed to do it,” he told reporters.
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The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of groups opposed to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said Sweden appeared to have succumbed to blackmail and hostage tactics in a move that emboldened the Iranian government.
Kenneth Lewis, a lawyer who represented the 12 plaintiffs in Sweden's Nouri case, said his clients had not been consulted and were “appalled and devastated” by Nouri's release.
“This is an insult to the entire judicial system and to everyone who took part in these trials,” he told Reuters.
Lewis said his clients were sympathetic to the Swedish government's efforts to repatriate its citizens, but that Nouri's release was “totally disproportionate”.
Floderus, a European Union official, was arrested in Iran in 2022 and charged with espionage for Israel and “corruption on earth”, a charge that carries the death penalty.
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Saeed Azizi, a dual Swedish-Iranian citizen, was arrested in Iran in November 2023 for what Sweden called “unjustified reasons.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the release of the two Swedes from “unjust Iranian detention” and praised Sweden's efforts to secure their release.
Another Swedish-Iranian dual national, Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested in 2016, remains in an Iranian prison. Djalali, an emergency medicine physician, was arrested in 2016 during an academic visit to Iran.
This article has been generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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