Iranian convicted of war crimes released in Swedish prisoner exchange

An Iranian convicted in Sweden of war crimes has been released as part of a prisoner exchange between the two countries.

Hamid Noury, who is serving a life sentence, is returning to Tehran while Johan Floderus, a Swedish diplomat, and dual national Saeed Azizi are on their way back to Stockholm.

Mr. Noury ​​was arrested in Sweden in 2019 and convicted in connection with the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran more than three decades ago.

Mr. Floderus was detained in Iran two years ago for espionage while Mr. Azizi was arrested last November and sentenced to five years in prison.

Relations between Sweden and Iran have deteriorated since Mr. Noury’s conviction.

Notice of exchange, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Iran has made Mr. Floderus and Mr. Azizi “both pawns in a cynical negotiating game, with the aim of getting Iranian citizen Hamid Noury ​​released from prison in Sweden”.

He added: “He was convicted of serious crimes that occurred in Iran in the 1980s.”

Kazem Gharibabadi, Secretary of Iran’s High Human Rights Council, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday that Mr. Noury ​​had been illegally detained in Sweden but was now free and returned to Iran.

According to Swedish prosecutors, Mr. Noury ​​was charged with war crimes and murder in 1988 while he was working as an assistant deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj.

He was the first person to face prosecution for participating in the execution of thousands of prisoners, something the Iranian government has never officially acknowledged.

In 1988, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a left-wing opposition group backed by Iraq, attacked Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.

Iran’s Supreme Leader at that time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, ordered the execution of all prisoners loyal to or sympathetic to the group.

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.

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 “serious violations of international humanitarian law and murder”.

He was tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute people for serious crimes contrary to international law committed elsewhere.

This includes war crimes, genocide, torture and crimes against humanity.

Mr. Floderus, 33, is facing the death penalty after being arrested in Iran in 2022 on charges of espionage while on vacation.

Mr. Azizi, an Iranian citizen of Swedish descent in his 60s, was convicted of “assembling and colluding against national security.”

Oman helped negotiate a prisoner exchange and played a key role in the release of another European citizen last week. French banker Louis Arnaud has been released after two years of detention in Iran.