Former Iranian government official Hamid Noori was released in exchange for Swedish nationals Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi.
Tehran, Iran – Iran and Sweden completed an Oman-brokered prisoner swap that will see the release of a European Union diplomat and another Swedish-Iranian national in exchange for the release of a former Iranian government official.
The official Oman News Agency confirmed on Saturday that the prisoners had been transferred from Tehran and Stockholm to Muscat before being repatriated to their home countries.
Kazem Gharibabadi, head of foreign affairs at Iran’s judiciary, told X-TV that Hamid Nouri, who was convicted of war crimes and murder in Iran in 1988 and was serving a life sentence in Sweden, had been released.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christersson confirmed that Swedish national Johan Floders and Iranian-Swede Saeed Azizi had been released from Tehran and were on their way home.
Froderas, 33, a European Union diplomat, had been held for more than two years. His trial began in Iran in December on charges of spying for Israel, which could have carried the death penalty.
Azizi was jailed and given a five-year sentence on national security charges.
Relations between Iran and Sweden have been deteriorating over the case of Nouri, who was deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison near Tehran and convicted of involvement in the deaths of thousands of political prisoners.
Iranian officials allege Nouri’s trial is influenced by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a foreign-based group that Iran considers a “terrorist” organization because of a series of bombings in the 1980s and its alliance with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.
On December 19, a Swedish appeals court upheld Nouri’s life sentence.
Iran is also holding dual national Ahmadreza Jalali, who is serving a death sentence on espionage charges.
