During the prisoner exchange carried out on Saturday, Sweden freed an Iranian official convicted for his role in a mass execution in the 1980s in a breakthrough deal. Hamid Noury was convicted for his involvement in a mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
Meanwhile, Iran had released two Swedes, Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi being held there.
According to a foreign ministry statement, Oman had mediated the prisoner swaps. "Omani efforts resulted in the two sides agreeing on a mutual release, as those released were transferred from Tehran and Stockholm," it said.
IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, published the footage of Noury arriving at Tehran's Mehrabad airport where he was welcomed by his family.
In a statement, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that Swedish citizens Floderus and Azizi were on a plane back to Sweden. "Iran used them both as pawns in a cynical negotiations game with the purpose of getting the Iranian citizen Hamid Noury released from prison in Sweden. He is convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s," Kristersson said.
“As prime minister, I have a special responsibility for Swedish citizens' safety. The government has therefore worked intensively on the issue, together with the Swedish security services which have negotiated with Iran," he added.
Noury, 63, was arrested in 2019 at a Stockholm airport and later sentenced to life in prison for war crimes, mass execution and torture of political prisoners at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988. However, he had denied the charges against him.
Floderus, a European Union employee, was arrested in Iran in 2022 and charged with spying for Israel and corruption, which is entitled to get death penalty. While Swedish-Iranian dual national Saeed Azizi was arrested in Iran in November last year on "wrongful grounds."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the release of the two Swedes from "unjustified Iranian custody" and congratulated Sweden for its efforts to free them.
Another Swedish-Iranian dual national, Ahmadreza Djalali, arrested in 2016, still remains in Iranian custody. Also, An emergency medicine doctor, Djalali was arrested in 2016 while on an academic visit to Iran.
(With agencies report)