Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom announced today, Saturday, that an Iranian court has started the trial of a Swedish citizen working for the European Union who was detained last year. Billstrom told the Swedish news agency (TT), "I have been informed that the trial of Johan Flodérus has begun in Tehran." He stated, "The Swedish chargé d'affaires was present in court but was not granted the right to participate in the trial. Sweden has requested the right to attend the trial's continuation."
Flodérus was arrested by authorities in April 2022 while on vacation in Iran, and his family stated that this was due to allegations of espionage. The Swedish Foreign Minister did not specify the charges against Flodérus. His family claims that the authorities are holding him "without any justification and without following due process."
Human rights groups and Western governments accuse the Islamic Republic of attempting to extract political concessions from other countries by detaining their nationals on possibly fabricated security charges. Tehran claims such arrests are based on its criminal law and denies holding anyone for political reasons.
Relations between Stockholm and Tehran have been strained since 2019 when Sweden detained a former Iranian official for his role in mass executions and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s. Hamid Noury was sentenced to life imprisonment last year, prompting Iran to summon its ambassador to Sweden in protest. In May, Iran executed a Swedish-Iranian opposition figure convicted of leading an Arab separatist group, which Tehran blames for a number of attacks, including an attack on a military parade in 2018 that resulted in the deaths of 25 people.
