13 September 2023; MEMO: Iran’s judiciary yesterday confirmed the detention of Swedish diplomat working for the EU for “committing crimes” during his stay in the country, Iranian and international agencies reported.
This came a week after Stockholm and Brussels revealed the latest known case of a foreign national being held by Tehran.
Johan Floderus has been held captive in Iran for more than 500 days, Radio Free Europe said, stating he was arrested on 17 April 2022 at Tehran’s airport as he was returning home from a trip with friends.
Announcing the arrest, judiciary spokesman Masud Setayeshi said: “The Swedish national has been lawfully imprisoned following preliminary inquiry and the results of a full investigation into his case will be released in the coming days.”
No mention was made of what crimes had been committed
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said last week that the bloc had been pushing “relentlessly” for the Swede’s release.
In July 2022, Iran announced it had arrested a Swedish man and was holding him on espionage charges, but did not mention his name or position.
The announcement came two weeks after an Iranian citizen received a life jail term in Sweden for his role in the Iranian regime’s 1988 mass executions of thousands of opponents.
