Swedish-Iranian Man in His 60s Jailed in Iran, Sweden Says

Iranian authorities arrested a Swedish citizen in his 60s last year, Stockholm said on January 18, calling for the man’s immediate release.

Sweden’s government did not identify the man, but it said he holds dual Swedish and Iranian citizenship and was detained at the end of November “without a clear reason.”

Iranian officials did not immediately comment on the matter.

The announcement came a day after Sweden’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian chargé d'affaires and demanded the release of all Swedish prisoners "who are arbitrarily detained in Iran.”

Relations between Tehran and Stockholm have been tense since 2019, when a former Iranian official was arrested in Sweden for his role in the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s.

In December last year, a Swedish appeals court upheld the life sentence for the former official, Hamid Noury.

Tehran has protested the sentence and vowed to seek Noury’s release.

Western governments and rights groups have repeatedly accused the Islamic Republic of taking dual and foreign nationals hostage for the sole purpose of using them in prisoner swaps or as a bargaining chip in international negotiations.

At least four Swedish citizens are currently detained in Iran.

On January 15, Stockholm said that a Swedish national in his 20s was arrested in Iran early this month, with Swedish media reports saying the man was the subject of an international arrest warrant relating to a murder case.

Johan Floderus, a Swedish EU employee who has been imprisoned in Iran since April 2022, went on trial in December last year.

Floderus is accused of spying for Israel and "corruption on Earth," a charge that can carry the death penalty.

An Iranian-Swedish academic, Ahmadreza Djalali, was arrested in Iran in 2016 and sentenced to death on espionage charges following what human rights organizations called a “grossly unfair” trial. 

He remains under threat of execution.

In May 2023, Iranian authorities executed Habib Chaab, an Iranian-Swedish dual citizen accused of leading an Arab separatist group Tehran blamed for a deadly attack on a military parade in 2018.

Chaab, who had been living in Sweden for more than a decade, was abducted during a visit to Turkey in 2020 and smuggled to Iran.