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The Jerusalem Post

Swede faces charges in Iran of spying for Israel

 
 Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force attend a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran April 14, 2023. (photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)
Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) force attend a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran April 14, 2023.
(photo credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

Johan Floderus was detained in April 2022 while on holiday in Iran. Sweden’s foreign minister said on Saturday that his trial had begun.

A Swedish national employed by the European Union faces charges in Iran of spying for Israel and ‘corruption on earth’, a capital offense under the country's Islamic laws, Iranian news agency ISNA said on Sunday.

Johan Floderus was detained in April 2022 while on holiday in Iran. Sweden’s foreign minister said on Saturday that his trial had begun.

Floderus' family has said he was detained "without any justifiable cause or due process."

Police stand guard outside the Swedish Embassy during a protest against a man who burned a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in the Swedish capital Stockholm, in Tehran, Iran June 30, 2023.  (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA/REUTERS)
Police stand guard outside the Swedish Embassy during a protest against a man who burned a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in the Swedish capital Stockholm, in Tehran, Iran June 30, 2023. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA/REUTERS)

Political reasons for the arrest

Rights groups and Western governments have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to extract political concessions from other countries through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran says such arrests are based on its criminal code and it denies holding people for political reasons.

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Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since 2019 when Sweden arrested a former Iranian official for his part in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s.

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