STOCKHOLM, Dec 11 (Reuters)
–
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Monday demanded the immediate release of Swedish European Union employee Johan Floderus from prison in
Iran.
Floderus was arrested in
Iran in 2022.
Iran said on Sunday it had begun a trial of the Swedish national, having charged him with spying for Israel and “corruption on earth,” a crime that carries the death penalty.
Enlarge
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson/ REUTERS/FILE PHOTO
“He is entirely arbitrarily detained,” Kristersson told a press conference. “We demand his immediate release.”
Relations between Sweden and
Iran have been tense since 2019, when
Sweden arrested a former
Iranian official, Hamid Noury, on suspicion of torture and executions of political prisoners in
Iran in the 1980s.
A Swedish district court in 2022 found Noury guilty of the charges. Noury appealed the case, and an appeals court ruling is expected next week.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik)