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Iran to Kick off Trial of Iranian-Swedish Opposition Figure

Ahvaz activist Habib Chaab during an interview with Iranian television last year. (ISNA)
Ahvaz activist Habib Chaab during an interview with Iranian television last year. (ISNA)
    London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Iran to Kick off Trial of Iranian-Swedish Opposition Figure

Ahvaz activist Habib Chaab during an interview with Iranian television last year. (ISNA)
Ahvaz activist Habib Chaab during an interview with Iranian television last year. (ISNA)

The trial of an Iranian-Swedish dissident held in Iran on security charges for over a year will kick off on Tuesday, the judiciary said.

Habib Chaab, also known as Habib Asyud, went missing during a visit to Turkey in October 2020 and a month later appeared in a video, broadcast by Iranian state television, making confessions.

Human rights groups condemn such confessions, describing them as "coercive," accusing the Iranian authorities of forcing them under torture.

Chaab's trial comes as tensions grew between Iran and Sweden following the prosecution of former Iranian official Hamid Nouri, who is on trial in Stockholm over alleged involvement in 1988 executions.

"The first hearing in the case of Habib Farjollah Chaab, also known as Habib Asyud, the leader of the terrorist group ASMLA, opens tomorrow (Tuesday) before Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court," the judiciary's Mizan Online agency said.

Chaab is accused of "planning and carrying out several terrorist acts, including bomb attacks in Khuzestan province," the agency said.

Last November, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) said the authorities wanted to obtain false confessions from Chaab to execute him, noting that it ultimately rejected all the accusations against him.

ASMLA also revealed that Chaab was subjected to "physical and psychological torture."

Chaab's family, who resides in Sweden, denies the accusations.

Stockholm said it had not been granted consular access to Chaab, who lived in exile in Sweden, where he received citizenship.

In December 2020, Turkey arrested 11 people suspected of spying and kidnapping Chaab on behalf of Iran.

It is believed that Chaab was kidnapped in Istanbul before being taken to Van, on the Iranian border, before he was handed over to authorities in Tehran, according to Turkish police.

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China and Japan Agree to Talks on Security Issues as They Seek to Mend Ties

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, shakes hands with Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, shakes hands with Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via AP)
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China and Japan Agree to Talks on Security Issues as They Seek to Mend Ties

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, shakes hands with Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, shakes hands with Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya in Beijing, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via AP)

China and Japan agreed Wednesday to set up talks on often contentious security issues as they seek to improve a relationship riven in recent years by a range of issues, from territorial disputes to the discharge of water from Japan's tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, on his first trip to China since assuming the post in October, sounded positive after meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, saying the talks were "very candid" and wide-ranging.

"I feel we were able to build a personal relationship that would lead to the future," he told reporters in the Chinese capital.

Wang agreed to visit Japan next year for a high-level economic dialogue including cooperation on the environment, energy conservation and health and nursing care. Japan announced an easing of visa requirements for Chinese visitors, following China's recent decision to allow Japanese to enter without a visa.

The two countries also have major differences. Iwaya raised Japan's concerns about China's military activity near a group of uninhabited islands that both countries claim, as well as China's territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea.

Efforts to improve ties are in their early stages following a commitment to do so made by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at a meeting last month during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.

"Currently China-Japan relations are at a critical period of improvement and development," Li said at the start of his meeting with Iwaya. "China is willing to work together with Japan to move toward the important direction proposed by the leaders of the two countries."

Iwaya's one-day trip came just before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January and the uncertainty his presidency is expected to bring to America's global relations.

Trump has threatened to hike tariffs on Chinese goods, reigniting a trade war he unleashed in his first administration. It's unclear how he will impact the US-Japan alliance, which President Joe Biden has sought to buttress during the last four years as part of his strategy to confront a rising China.

Japan has revamped its approach to defense i n response to Chinese actions in recent years, boosting military spending and shifting away from a principle of self-defense. Earlier this year, Japan protested when a Chinese military plane flew into Japan’s airspace, while in the summer, a Chinese survey ship sailed into Japanese territorial waters.

Wang agreed to Iwaya's proposal for a Japan-China security dialogue, which would try to improve communication over some of these issues.

Iwaya called for an early lifting of a ban on Japanese seafood imports that China imposed after a Japanese utility began discharging treated but still radioactive water from the former nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

The two sides agreed to keep working on the issue, and also resume talks on Japanese beef and rice exports to China.

Japan's easing of visa requirements included allowing group tours to stay for 30 days, up from 15, and increasing the validity of multiple-entry tourist visas from five to 10 years.

Both sides hope that people-to-people exchanges can help improve relations.