An Iranian court has begun the trial of a Swedish national employed by the European Union who was detained last year, Sweden's foreign minister said on Saturday.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since 2019 © Mena Today
An Iranian court has begun the trial of a Swedish national employed by the European Union who was detained last year, Sweden's foreign minister said on Saturday.
"I have been informed that the trial of Johan Floderus has begun in Tehran," Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told Swedish news agency TT.
"The Swedish charge d'affaires was at the court but was refused the right to participate in the trial. Sweden has ... requested the right to be present when the trial resumes."
Floderus was detained in April 2022 while on holiday in Iran for what his family said was alleged spying. Billstrom did not specify what Floderus had been charged with.
Floderus' family has said he was detained "without any justifiable cause or due process."
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 denies holding people for political reasons.
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. Hamid Noury was sentenced to life in prison last year, prompting Iran to recall its envoy to Sweden in protest.
In May, Iran executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident convicted of leading an Arab separatist group Tehran blames for a number of attacks including one on a military parade in 2018 that killed 25 people.
Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Conor Humphries
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. and Iran would continue talks on Thursday for a nuclear deal, adding that Tehran was a tough negotiator and that the main impediment to an agreement was over enrichment.
Iran's acquisition of confidential U.N. nuclear watchdog documents is a 'bad' step that goes against the spirit of cooperation that should exist between the agency and Tehran, its chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday.
Iran will soon hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the United States via Oman, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, in response to a U.S. offer that Tehran deems "unacceptable".
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.