Iran Detains EU employees
Iran-EU: Chief Diplomat Borrell confirms that Iran is holding EU employees as detainees. Iran had already reported the arrest of a Swedish last year. Since then, both countries have not given any information about his identity. As the EU foreign policy officer Borrell has now announced, it is an EU employee.
Almost a year and a half after the arrest of a Swedish in Iran, the European Union’s foreign service has confirmed that the detainee is an employee.
The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on the fringes of a ministerial meeting in Cádiz, Spain, that in close coordination with the Swedish government, work was being done at all levels to get Johan Floderus released. Floderus has been unjustly detained in Iran for around 500 days.
Borrell thus confirmed a report by the “New York Times” on Monday. According to the EU, Floderus was most recently a member of the Foreign Service team responsible for Afghanistan. Previously, he worked for the Swedish EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson, among others. According to NYT, Floderus is being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
Tehran’s notorious Evin prison:
This Evin Prison or Detention Center was built during 1972 in the Reza Shah Pahlavi’s rule. It is situated in the lap of Alborz mountains.
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No information about The Swedish Detainee’s identity:
The Swedish government had previously said it had been calling for the release of a citizen imprisoned in Iran since last year, but did not provide any information about his identity.
The Iranian secret service had already reported the arrest of the Swedish prisoner last summer – also without providing information on his identity. It said only that the person had been arrested on espionage charges after she had been to the country several times as a tourist. The person was under surveillance.
At the time, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs only said: “It is an existing consular case that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working on for some time.”
Iranian diplomacy:
Critics accuse Iran of “hostage diplomacy.”
Tensions between Sweden and Iran:
More than a dozen Western citizens are imprisoned in Iran, most of whom also have Iranian passports. This does not apply only to the Sweden.
Relations between Sweden and Iran:
Relations between Sweden and Iran are considered tense. Tehran is demanding that Sweden release national Hamid N., who has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in mass executions of political prisoners in Iran.
In May, Iran’s judiciary executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident accused of terrorist activities.
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