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SWEDEN AND IRAN

Swedish citizen arrested in Iran

Iranian authorities have detained a Swedish man, Stockholm said Friday, threatening to strain already tense ties between the countries.

Published: 7 May 2022 12:00 CEST
The flag of Iran waves in front of the the International Center building in Vienna, Austria.
The flag of Iran waves in front of the the International Center building in Vienna, Austria. Photo: Florian Schroetter/TT

Sweden’s foreign ministry confirmed to AFP that a Swedish man in his 30s “has recently been detained”.

“The embassy in Tehran is seeking further information in the matter and is in contact with local authorities,” it said in an email, providing no further details.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported the man was on holiday together with other Swedes when he was detained.

Relations between Sweden and Iran are already tense over a trial in Stockholm against an Iranian ex-prison official accused of war crimes over his alleged role in a 1988 purge of dissidents.

READ ALSO: Swedish court to give verdict in Iranian war crimes trial in July

Hamid Noury, 61, was arrested at a Stockholm airport in November 2019 after Iranian dissidents in Sweden filed police complaints against him.

The trial ended on Wednesday with the court due to issue a verdict in July. Earlier this week, Iran’s foreign ministry demanded Noury’s release, saying it considered his arrest and trial “illegal”.

Meanwhile, the Iranian news agency Isna reported this week that Iran plans to execute Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in 2017 for spying for Israel, before May 21.

The Swedish foreign ministry last week advised its nationals against non-essential travel to Iran.

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SWEDEN AND IRAN

Swedish foreign minister confronts Iran over murder plot against Jews

Sweden's foreign minister said Thursday he had confronted his Iranian counterpart after reports Tehran's intelligence service sent an undercover couple to murder Jews in the country.

Published: 15 February 2024 13:35 CET
Swedish foreign minister confronts Iran over murder plot against Jews

Last week, Swedish Radio (SR), reported that a couple, Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid, had been suspected of planning to kill Jewish representatives in Sweden in 2021.

They arrived in Sweden posing as Afghan refugees in 2017, said the report.

“It is of course something extremely negative that a country is pursuing murder plots on our territory,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told the broadcaster.

The couple were arrested in April 2021 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a terrorist crime, SR reported.

Due to a lack of evidence, they were never charged but were deported in 2022 for posing a security risk. According to SR, the Iranian couple denied the allegations.

“That Iranian agents on Swedish soil have plotted murders of Swedish citizens – and that these citizens are also of Jewish background – is of course something we take very seriously,” Billström said.

“I made this clear to my Iranian colleague, how we look at this and also of course how it affects the relationship between our countries,” he added.

Billström said he would raise the issue with his counterparts in the EU.

“This is a matter of general interest in the EU… and it may be beneficial for cooperation between EU member states to exchange ideas on this,” he told SR.

While the investigation into the couple is classified, SR cited sources saying that the two were working on behalf of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC.

The alleged agents had reportedly identified three different targets, gathering addresses and photographs.

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