Sweden Says Iran Has Denied Access to Detained Dissident

 A prison guard stands in a corridor inside Iran’s Evin prison (Reuters-File Photo)
A prison guard stands in a corridor inside Iran’s Evin prison (Reuters-File Photo)
TT
20

Sweden Says Iran Has Denied Access to Detained Dissident

 A prison guard stands in a corridor inside Iran’s Evin prison (Reuters-File Photo)
A prison guard stands in a corridor inside Iran’s Evin prison (Reuters-File Photo)

Sweden said Tuesday it had not been granted consular access to a Swedish-Iranian dissident who is detained in Iran after disappearing during a visit to Turkey in October.

Iran’s state media in November reported the arrest of Habib Chaab, a political dissident living in exile in Sweden.

A spokesman for Sweden’s foreign ministry said Tuesday its diplomats had still not been given consular access to Chaab, who has Swedish citizenship.

"Immediately when we learned of the reports we investigated through our foreign missions in Turkey and Iran. The case has also been raised with Turkey’s and Iran’s ambassadors to Stockholm,” Erik Karlsson at the foreign ministry told AFP.

Tehran accuses Chaab of being a leading figure in the Arab separatist group known as the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), which Iran has designated a terrorist organization.

The report provided no details about how he ended up in Iranian custody, but he disappeared during a visit to Turkey in mid-October.

Turkish police said Monday they had arrested 11 people suspected of spying for Iran and abducting the Iranian dissident.

In November, Chaab appeared on Iranian state television in a video in which he made a number of confessions.

Such videos are common in Iran and are frequently condemned by rights groups arguing that confessions are often forced and the result of torture.

Sweden and Iran already butted heads last month after Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde urged Tehran to call off the planned execution of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in Iran three years ago for spying.

Iran at first denounced the “interference” from Sweden, but in early December Djalali’s wife told AFP that she had learned from her husband’s lawyer that the execution had been postponed.



Greece Blocks Asylum Claims for Migrants on Crete after Surge in Arrivals

Migrants get off a bus at the port of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 08 July 2025. EPA/NIKOS CHALKIADAKIS
Migrants get off a bus at the port of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 08 July 2025. EPA/NIKOS CHALKIADAKIS
TT
20

Greece Blocks Asylum Claims for Migrants on Crete after Surge in Arrivals

Migrants get off a bus at the port of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 08 July 2025. EPA/NIKOS CHALKIADAKIS
Migrants get off a bus at the port of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 08 July 2025. EPA/NIKOS CHALKIADAKIS

Greece's government said Wednesday it is temporarily suspending asylum applications for migrants arriving on the island of Crete, following a spike in arrivals from Libya.

More than 2,000 migrants have landed on the island since the weekend, according to coast guard figures, bringing the total number of arrivals this year to over 10,000.

Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government also planned to build a detention site on Crete for migrants and was seeking direct collaboration between the Libya and Greek coast guards to turn back boats leaving the North African country.

“This emergency situation clearly demands emergency measures,” Mitsotakis told parliament Wednesday. “The Greek government has decided to inform the European Commission that ... it will suspend the processing of asylum applications — for an initial period of three months — for those arriving by sea from North Africa.”

According to The Associated Press, the suspension will apply only to migrants reaching Crete by sea. Migrants entering illegally will be detained, Mitsotakis said. “The Greek government is sending a firm message: the route to Greece is closing, and that message is directed at all human traffickers,” he said.

Overnight, a fishing trawler carrying 520 migrants from Libya was intercepted south of Crete. A bulk carrier that took all of the migrants onboard was rerouted to the port of Lavrio, near Athens, so that the migrants could be detained on a mainland facility, authorities said.