Sweden and the European Union Commission on Monday said a Swedish national is being detained in Iran - the latest known case of a foreign national being held in Iran amid political tensions with the West.
The New York Times earlier on Monday reported that a Swedish citizen, who according to the paper has been working for the European Union's diplomatic corps, had been imprisoned in Iran for more than 500 days.
“A Swedish citizen – a man in his thirties – was detained in Iran in April 2022,” the foreign ministry in Stockholm said, adding: “The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Sweden in Tehran are working very intensively on the case and are maintaining close contact with the EU.”
A spokesperson for the European Commission on Monday also confirmed a Swedish national being held in Iran, but declined to give further details.
The New York Times said the case of the Swedish man, Johan Floderus, kept under wraps for more than a year, has become part of Iran’s “hostage diplomacy” as Tehran seeks concessions from the West.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been scooping up tens of dual Iranian nationals and foreigners on spurious charges. Activists accuse Iran of seeking to trade them for Iranians held in Europe or the United States, or to use them as leverage to extract money and other concessions.
Last month, the United States concluded a deal with Iran to free five Americans held there in exchange for $6 billion in withheld Iranian oil revenues as well as the release of Iranian prisoners in America.
On August 10, Iran moved four American prisoners from Tehran's Evin prison to an undisclosed house and placed them on house arrest.
They joined a fifth American who had already been moved in recent weeks to house arrest, possibly a step toward their eventual freedom in a prisoner swap.
Last May, Iran released a Belgian aid worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, who was imprisoned in Tehran on espionage charges for 455 days.
Still, the case of Floderus stands out because of the prisoner’s background as a European official. The New York Times said the Swedish diplomat, 33, has held several positions in the European Union’s institutions, coming up through its civil service training program. He was even featured in an advertising campaign to attract young Swedes to European Union careers.
The newspaper also said Floderus visited Iran last spring on what people familiar with the case described as a private tourist trip with several Swedish friends. As he prepared to leave Tehran on April 17, 2022, he was detained at the airport.
In July last year, the Iranian government released a statement announcing that it had apprehended a Swedish national for espionage.
Floderus is now being held in the notorious Evin prison in the Iranian capital.
The New York Times spoke to six people with firsthand knowledge of the case. All requested anonymity, fearing a backlash for speaking about it. They denied that Floderus had been involved in espionage.
Neither Sweden nor the EU identified the man.
“In our assessment it would complicate the handling of the case if the ministry were to publicly discuss its actions. In light of this, we see no reason to confirm any names,” the Swedish foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.
The New York Times said Floderus most recently served as an aide to the European commissioner for migration, Ylva Johansson, starting in 2019. In 2021, he joined the European External Action Service, the bloc’s diplomatic corps.
He had visited Iran previously, without incident, on official European Union business, when he worked for the bloc’s development program, people familiar with his background said.
Floderus was a member of the Afghanistan delegation for the diplomatic corps, but never made it to Kabul because of the Taliban takeover in August 2021. He did his job from headquarters in Brussels, where he had lived for several years, people familiar with his background said.
The European External Action Service said that it was “following very closely the case of a Swedish national detained in Iran” but did not acknowledge that the person in question worked for the service or that Floderus had previously visited Iran on official EU business.
“This case has also to be seen in the context of the growing number of arbitrary detentions involving EU citizens,” said Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for the bloc’s diplomatic body. “We have used and will continue to use every opportunity to raise the issue with the Iranian authorities to obtain the release of all arbitrarily detained EU citizens.”
