EU Careers Sweden The Swedish diplomat Johan Floderus has been detained in Iran for 1.5 years
A Swedish diplomat has been held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison for almost 1.5 years. His imprisonment has been kept secret all along, but became known yesterday after reporting in The New York Times. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borell confirmed it today.
33-year-old Johan Floderus works as a diplomat for the European Union. He is said to have been arrested in the spring of 2022 during a holiday in Iran with a group of friends. When they wanted to fly back home on April 17, Floderus was arrested at the airport.
A few months later, the Iranian government announced that it had arrested a Swedish national for espionage, but neither Iran nor Sweden commented on further details.
“We don’t know much about this matter, especially since both sides have always kept it quiet,” said Iranian political analyst Negar Mortazavi from Washington. She adds that the arrest is part of Iran’s strategy of rounding up foreigners and using them as pawns in negotiations with Western countries.
Swap with Iranian prisoner
Mortazavi thinks that the Iranians in this case are after the release of an Iranian former prosecutor who is imprisoned in Sweden. He was sentenced to life in prison last year for involvement in mass executions of Iranian political opponents in the 1980s. “The Iranian government has been trying unsuccessfully to bring him back to Iran for years.”
According to Mortazavi, it is therefore no coincidence that the Iranian authorities have selected the European diplomat from the group of friends. “The Iranians see him as a prominent person with whom they may be able to recover a valuable Iranian prisoner.”
The New York Times announced the Floderus case to the world yesterday. The newspaper writes that it has spoken to six people who are aware of the matter, but all wish to remain anonymous.
EU foreign policy chief Borell said today that he and his team are working tirelessly for Floderus’ release. “We will continue to do so and we will keep in close contact with his family and the Swedish government.”
Scandinavia correspondent Rolien Créton about keeping the matter quiet:
“There was a fear that if the news came out and the media reported it, it would disrupt the negotiations. That is why silent diplomacy was chosen. So far, this has not had the desired result. At the same time, there is understanding here in Sweden for this strategy. The most important thing is that the EU diplomat is released.”
Since former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018, Iran has intensified its hostage-taking strategy, Mortazavi says. “Tensions between Iran and the US – and therefore between Iran and US allies – have since increased. America and Iran both want to avoid military confrontation, so we see those tensions manifesting themselves in other ways.”
Belgian aid worker
Last May, Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele was released after more than a year in Evin prison. In exchange for his return, Belgium released the Iranian terrorist Assadollah Assadi. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison in Belgium in 2021 for involvement in a foiled attack on a meeting of an Iranian opposition group.
According to Mortazavi, the situation in Sweden is more complicated because the Iranian prisoner held there has been convicted of crimes actually committed. “Many Iranian prisoners were executed in the 1980s. Swedish lawyers I spoke to say that there is no chance that Sweden will release this prisoner.”
‘Brothers in pain’
Vandecasteele could not be reached for comment today, but during a concert last June in honor of his homecoming, he referred to a Swedish cellmate. “We became brothers in pain. We promised each other to do everything for each other, and that the first to be released would help the other’s family and loved ones.”
About Evin Prison, political analyst Mortazavi says: “Foreign prisoners are known to spend months in solitary confinement, have little contact with the outside world, and undergo psychological torture during interrogations.”
2023-09-05 20:04:24
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