Sweden has never before carried out an international prisoner exchange.
This is the background to the exchange between the life-sentenced Hamid Noury and the detained Swedes Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi.
Hamid Noury arrested
The Iranian Hamid Noury was lured to Sweden by exiled Iranians and was arrested in 2019 at Arlanda. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in mass executions linked to the political organisation People's Mujahedin, in a prison in Tehran in 1988.
According to the verdict, he, as a prosecutor's assistant, selected prisoners for a committee that chose who would be executed. He also escorted prisoners to the execution chamber, where he "on one or several occasions" participated himself.
He has consistently maintained his innocence. Iran also claims that the verdict is "illegal and unjust".
.
The prisoners Floderus and Azizi
Several analysts believe that Johan Floderus was arrested as a consequence of Noury's sentencing.
The 33-year-old Swedish EU official from western Sweden has, among other things, worked closely with Sweden's EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson. In the spring of 2022, he travelled to Iran with friends, on what was, according to his family, a holiday trip.
He was arrested and accused of spying for Israel and of "spreading corruption in the world". He has, among other things, been subjected to torture and has gone on hunger strike in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.
The 61-year-old Saeed Azizi was arrested at his home in Iran in November. He has lived in Sweden for 35 years but returned to his former homeland last year to, among other things, commemorate the anniversary of his deceased mother. He has been ill with cancer for a couple of years.
Azizi was accused of collaborating with a hostile country against Iran. To Aftonbladet, Azizi says that he was also accused of being involved in the case of Hamid Noury in Sweden.
.
This is how it happened
At 21.20 on Saturday, the plane with the two Swedish citizens landed in Sweden.
The reason the government decided to release Hamid Noury in exchange for Floderus and Azizi was, according to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, that talks had been ongoing for a long time without results. To make the exchange possible, the government pardoned Noury.
.
Ahmadreza Djalali remains
The government failed to negotiate freedom for the doctor Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2016. Djalali, who holds both Iranian and Swedish citizenship, has been sentenced to death for "corruption on earth". According to Tobias Billström, Iran refuses to even acknowledge his Swedish citizenship. Kristersson stated that Iran did not want to discuss his name at all.
.
Oman as intermediary
Kristersson states that Oman contributed to the release of the two Swedes. It was there that the negotiations took place, and it was also where the actual prisoner exchange was carried out.
