Johan Floderus
The expert: That's why the prisoner exchange took place now
Noam Bertling
Published 19.07
There has been a prisoner exchange between Sweden and Iran.
Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi were exchanged for Hamid Noury.
- The most stressful circumstances are gone, says international law professor Mark Klamberg.
Quick version
First it appeared on Arab media. Two Swedish citizens and an Iranian citizen had been transported to Oman to go on to Stockholm and Tehran respectively. Then Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told what it was all about.
- It is with pleasure that I can announce that Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi are now on a plane home to Sweden, and will soon be reunited with their families.
The imprisoned citizens have led to the relationship between the countries being very strained, says Mark Klamberg.
- Sweden now finds itself in the same situation as other western countries. After all, Iran is in a strained relationship with the West, so it is not that all is well now.
- But now the most strained circumstances are in some sense gone.
Therefore it happened now
EU diplomat Johan Floderus has been imprisoned in Iran since April 2022, accused of espionage and at risk of being sentenced to death. In November of the following year, the Swedish-Iranian Saeed Azizi was arrested on the same grounds. The Iranian citizen Hamid Noury was arrested in 2019 at Arlanda and is sentenced to life in prison for murder and serious crimes against humanity.
Why do you think the prisoner exchange happened now?
- The Supreme Court made a decision regarding Noury relatively recently. The government was formally barred from entering into an agreement with Iran before that. But I can imagine that Sweden has been in contact with Iran before, says Mark Klamberg.
Meanwhile, the Swedish-Iranian doctor and researcher Ahmadreza Djalali is still imprisoned in Iran since 2016.
Why was Ahmadreza Djalali not released too, do you think?
- It is a negotiation. It is possible that you felt that it was no longer possible, that you did what you could or had to prioritize in some way.
Can we expect more prisoner exchanges with Iran?
- As far as I know, we do not have any more Iranians left who are imprisoned with us, so I find it difficult to see the same scenario occurring again, says Mark Klamberg.
- Sweden must first end up in a situation where we have something that Iran does not have. It is not a normal situation that we have an Iranian of that level of interest imprisoned, he continues.
This is how the reactions can be in Iran
He says that from an Iranian perspective they have succeeded. Now maybe Iran will continue prisoner exchanges - but with other countries.
- I can imagine that this is bigger in the relationship between the West and Iran, says Mark Klamberg.
Hamid Noury was sentenced to life imprisonment for having participated in mass executions in the Iranian prison of Gohardasht in 1988. Several of those murdered had connections to the left-wing group the Iranian People's Mujahedin.
The fact that Hamid Noury is coming home may arouse mixed reactions in the country.
- I imagine that the regime will welcome Noury as a hero. But among many it will probably be a big disappointment, many will be critical.
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