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EU Diplomat, Fellow Swede, Freed By Iran

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TEHRAN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Johan Floderus, the Swedish European Union diplomat held in captivity for two years in Iran, has been freed and is on his way home in a prisoners swap, the Swedish prime minister confirmed.

Ulf Kristersson said Saturday that the Iranian prisoner Hamid Noury, a former Iranian official convicted for his role in a mass execution in the 1980s, was released in exchange for Floderus and the Iranian-Swedish citizen Saeed Azizi.

Their release comes months after Floderus’s father said they expected execution or a life sentence after he was accused of spying.

Azizi’s five-year prison term on national security charges was upheld earlier this year. The EU and his family were among those saying the charges were false.

Oman mediated the prisoner swap, the country’s foreign ministry said. “Omani efforts resulted in the two sides agreeing on a mutual release, as those released were transferred from Tehran and Stockholm,” it added.

Sweden freed former Iranian official Hamid Noury, who had been convicted for his part in the mass killings of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency published footage of Noury arriving at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, where his family welcomed him on a red carpet.

ON PLANE

Kristersson said in a statement that Floderus and Azizi were on a plane back to Sweden.

Yet questions were raised about the release of the Iranian Noury, a convicted mass murderer. “It has been clear all along that this operation would require difficult decisions,” admitted the Swedish prime minister.

Ylva Johansson, the Swedish EU commissioner in whose team Floderus has worked, said: “Johan is finally free after more than two years wrongfully imprisoned in an Iranian jail. I am so so, so happy. I am happy for Johan, for his family and his friends.”

She added, “Every day, in these last two years, Johan has been in our minds and hearts. We spoke about him every day, and now we are just all so relieved and happy to finally be able to say: ‘Johan, welcome home.’”

In a statement, the EU said the 33-year-old, who had worked on the Afghanistan desk of the EU’s external services department, was “on his way home” from the notorious Evin prison, where many Christians and political prisoners have been held too.

His families and Christians say he and others have been detained there under “inhumane conditions.”

The EU’s executive European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was “delighted” and congratulated Sweden for its “persistent” efforts to release Floderus.

It comes despite EU-Tehran tensions over Iran’s support for Hamas and other groups designated as terrorist organizations and the Iranian nuclear program.