Iranian convicted of war crimes freed in Sweden prisoner swap – BBC News

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

Hamid Noury, who was 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 of involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran more than three decades ago.

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.

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

Announcing the swap, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Iran had made Mr Floderus and Mr Azizi “both pawns in a cynical negotiation game, with the aim of getting Iranian citizen Hamid Noury ​​released from prison in Sweden”.

He added: “He is convicted of serious crimes committed in Iran in the 1980s.”

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

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.

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.

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

Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order to execute all prisoners who were loyal to or sympathised with 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.