{"id":31473,"date":"2024-06-15T17:32:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T21:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/iranian-convicted-of-war-crimes-freed-in-swedish-swap\/15\/06\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-06-15T17:32:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T21:32:35","slug":"iranian-convicted-of-war-crimes-freed-in-swedish-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/iranian-convicted-of-war-crimes-freed-in-swedish-swap\/15\/06\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian convicted of war crimes freed in Swedish swap"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An Iranian convicted in Sweden of war crimes has been freed as part of a prisoner swap between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Hamid Noury, who was serving a life sentence, has returned to Tehran while Johan Floderus<\/a><\/span><\/span>, a Swedish diplomat and dual national Saeed Azizi arrived back in Stockholm late on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

Mr Noury was arrested in Sweden in 2019 and convicted of involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran more than three decades ago.<\/p>\n

Mr Floderus was detained in Iran two years ago on charges of spying while Mr Azizi was arrested last November and sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

Relations between Sweden and Iran have deteriorated since Mr Noury’s conviction.<\/p>\n

Announcing the swap, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said <\/a>Iran had made Mr Floderus and Mr Azizi “both pawns in a cynical negotiation game, with the aim of getting Iranian citizen Hamid Noury \u200b\u200breleased from prison in Sweden”.<\/p>\n

He added: “He is convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s.”<\/p>\n

Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter,<\/a> on Saturday that Mr Noury had been “illegally detained” in Sweden but was now free.<\/p>\n

Mr Noury was accused of committing war crimes and murder in 1988 when, according to Swedish prosecutors, he was assistant to the deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj.<\/p>\n

He was the first person to face prosecution for participating in the execution of thousands of prisoners, which Iran’s establishment has never formally acknowledged.<\/p>\n

In 1988, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iraqi-backed leftist opposition group, had attacked Iran during the Iran and Iraq War.<\/p>\n

Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order to execute all prisoners who were loyal to or sympathised with the group.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups estimate that between 2,800 and 5,000 women and men were executed at sites, including Gohardasht prison, between July and September 1988.<\/p>\n

Mr Noury, 63, was arrested after arriving at Stockholm airport on a flight from Iran. He denied the charges against him but he was found guilty of “grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder”.<\/p>\n

He was tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction which allows countries to prosecute people for serious crimes against international law that took place elsewhere.<\/p>\n

This includes war crimes, genocide, torture and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

Mr Floderus, 33, was facing the death penalty after his arrest in Iran in 2022 on accusations of espionage while he was on holiday.<\/p>\n

Mr Azizi, an Iranian-Swedish national in his early 60s, was found guilty of \u201cassembly and collusion against national security\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oman helped negotiate the prisoner swap and played a key role in the release of another European national last week. French banker Louis Arnaud was freed after two years in detention in Iran.<\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Iranian convicted in Sweden of war crimes has been freed as part of a prisoner swap between the two countries. Hamid