Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, speaking to journalists in Brussels on January 22, 2024. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on Monday said that his country has called the chargé d’affaires of Iran in Stockholm, requesting the provision of consular services to a jailed Swedish citizen in Iran, as well as to express worries about the Erbil attack.
“The chargé [d’affaires] was summoned to the foreign ministry to be told that we want to have consular access to a Swedish citizen, and many Swedish citizens, who have been taken into custody by Iranian authorities,” Billstrom told Rudaw’s Znar Shino ahead of a European Union ministers meeting in Brussels.
“We deem that it is necessary to call for such access because they are Swedish citizens,” he added.
The identity of the Swedish prisoner in question is yet to be confirmed.
In December, Iran’s judiciary started the trial of Johan Floredus, a Swedish diplomat who is accused of “corruption on earth, extensive measures against the security of the country, and extensive cooperation with” Israel, with the prosecutor calling for the death penalty.
The 33-year-old Swedish diplomat has been in an Iranian prison for over 600 days.
Floderus was arrested on April 17, 2022 upon arrival at Tehran’s airport to Iran and is being held at the country’s notorious Evin prison.
In September, the European Union confirmed that Floderus had been held in an Iranian prison for over 500 days. A week later, Iran’s judiciary announced that he had been arrested for “committing crimes in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The European Union’s top foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in December "there are absolutely no grounds for keeping Johan Floderus in detention," and called for his immediate release.
In May, Iran carried out the death sentence of dual Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Farajollah Chaab. He had been charged with “terrorism” and “spreading corruption on earth.”
In its annual world report on global rights conditions for the year 2022 published in January 2023, Human Rights Watch accused Iran of conducting unfair trials and obtaining confessions under duress, as well as targeting dual and foreign nationals with vague accusations such as “cooperating with a hostile state.”
“Iranian courts, and particularly revolutionary courts, regularly fall far short of providing fair trials, and use confessions likely obtained under torture as evidence in court,” the report read.
“The chargé [d’affaires] was summoned to the foreign ministry to be told that we want to have consular access to a Swedish citizen, and many Swedish citizens, who have been taken into custody by Iranian authorities,” Billstrom told Rudaw’s Znar Shino ahead of a European Union ministers meeting in Brussels.
“We deem that it is necessary to call for such access because they are Swedish citizens,” he added.
The identity of the Swedish prisoner in question is yet to be confirmed.
In December, Iran’s judiciary started the trial of Johan Floredus, a Swedish diplomat who is accused of “corruption on earth, extensive measures against the security of the country, and extensive cooperation with” Israel, with the prosecutor calling for the death penalty.
The 33-year-old Swedish diplomat has been in an Iranian prison for over 600 days.
Floderus was arrested on April 17, 2022 upon arrival at Tehran’s airport to Iran and is being held at the country’s notorious Evin prison.
In September, the European Union confirmed that Floderus had been held in an Iranian prison for over 500 days. A week later, Iran’s judiciary announced that he had been arrested for “committing crimes in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The European Union’s top foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in December "there are absolutely no grounds for keeping Johan Floderus in detention," and called for his immediate release.
In May, Iran carried out the death sentence of dual Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Farajollah Chaab. He had been charged with “terrorism” and “spreading corruption on earth.”
In its annual world report on global rights conditions for the year 2022 published in January 2023, Human Rights Watch accused Iran of conducting unfair trials and obtaining confessions under duress, as well as targeting dual and foreign nationals with vague accusations such as “cooperating with a hostile state.”
“Iranian courts, and particularly revolutionary courts, regularly fall far short of providing fair trials, and use confessions likely obtained under torture as evidence in court,” the report read.
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