Three days after the release of French consultant Louis Arnaud, the Swede Johan Floderus, 33, incarcerated in Evin prison, in Tehran, since April 2022, and the Iranian-Swede Saeed Azizi, 61, detained since November 2023 , were released. They arrived in Stockholm on Saturday, June 15, at 9:22 p.m. A few hours earlier, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, announced their release, in exchange for the return to Iran of Hamid Nouri, 63, sentenced by the Swedish justice for its involvement in the execution of hundreds of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988.
This former deputy prosecutor was arrested in November 2019, upon his arrival at Arlanda airport in Stockholm, where his ex-son-in-law and a former Iranian political prisoner lured him, promising him a luxurious trip to the region. Indicted for “ aggravated crime, crime against international law and murder », Hamid Nouri was tried on behalf of Sweden’s international court and sentenced to life in prison at first instance, then on appeal. On March 26, 2024, the kingdom’s Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, ending the legal proceedings and opening the possibility of an exchange.
Tehran has been demanding his release since his arrest. For Stockholm, there was never any doubt that Johan Floderus was a victim of “hostage diplomacy” practiced by Iran. A European official, he was arrested at Tehran airport on April 17, 2022, just two weeks before the Swedish prosecutor’s indictment against Hamid Nouri on May 2, 2022. Knowing Iran well, Johan Floderus came to spend a week of vacation with Swedish diplomat friends.
Psychological torture
For a year and a half, his parents kept his incarceration secret, hoping for a diplomatic outcome. In September 2023, they broke their silence and revealed that their son had been kept in solitary confinement for the first ten months of his detention and subjected to psychological torture. Accused of “espioning on behalf of Israel” »Johan Floderus was tried from December 10, 2023. On January 28, 2024, the Iranian prosecutor requested his death sentence.
Released at the same time as him, Saeed Azizi, whose name had not previously been made public, was arrested in his mother’s residence in Tehran on November 12, 2023, when he had just arrived from Sweden. An Iranian-Swede, he has since been sentenced to five years in prison. At a press conference in Stockholm on Saturday evening, the Swedish Prime Minister said that Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi had both “experienced hell on earth”.
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