Borrell Confirms Swedish EU Diplomat Held in Iran

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell. (Reuters)
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell. (Reuters)
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Borrell Confirms Swedish EU Diplomat Held in Iran

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell. (Reuters)
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell. (Reuters)

The European Union's top diplomat confirmed on Tuesday that Johan Floderus, a Swedish diplomat working for the EU, has been held captive in Iran for more than 500 days.

Arriving at a meeting on development in the Spanish city of Cadiz, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters that Brussels was pushing "relentlessly" for the 33-year-old's release.

On Monday, Sweden partially confirmed a New York Times report on the detention, announcing that a Swedish citizen in his thirties had been held in Iran since April 2022.

But Borrell went further, confirming the prisoner's name and that he works for the EU diplomatic corps.

"I want to say something about, if you allow me, a specific case, the case of Mr Floderus. He's a Swedish citizen who worked for the European Union and has been detained illegally in Iran for the last 500 days," Borrell said, AFP reported.

"I want to stress that I personally, all my team at all levels -- European institutions in close coordination with the Swedish authorities, which have the first responsibility of consular protection -- and with his family, have been pushing the Iranian authorities to release him.

"Every time we had diplomatic meetings, at all levels, we have put the issue on the table. Relentlessly.

"We have been working for the freedom of Mr Floderus and we will continue doing that in close contact with the family, respecting their will, and for sure with the Swedish government," he said.

"This is very much in our agenda, in our heart and we will not stop until Floderus will be free."

Shortly before Borrell went public with his concerns, Floderus' Swedish family issued a statement.

"We, Johan's family, are deeply worried and heartbroken. Johan was detained suddenly and without reason while on vacation and has now been in prison in Iran for more than 500 days," they said.

"We know that many are working hard to get him released and we are grateful for that. At the same time, every day is a huge ordeal, for us and above all for Johan," the statement continued.

"He must be released and allowed to come home immediately."

Iran announced in July last year that it had arrested a man on suspicion of espionage, two weeks after an Iranian citizen received a life jail term in Sweden for his role in the Iranian regime's 1988 mass executions of thousands of opponents.

A Stockholm court found former Iranian prison chief Hamid Noury guilty of "aggravated crimes against international law" and "murder".

Several capitals have accused Iran of practising "hostage diplomacy" -- arresting Western nationals to obtain concessions such as the release of detained Iranians.

In May, Belgian humanitarian worker Olivier Vandecasteele, 42, was released after 15 months in detention for alleged spying in a prisoner swap for Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, sentenced to 20 years for plotting to bomb an opposition rally in Paris.



Biden Is Laying Low at the White House on Election Day

US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
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Biden Is Laying Low at the White House on Election Day

US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden has no public appearances on his schedule and his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, won’t be holding her typical daily briefing on Tuesday.

Biden made his final campaign appearance on Saturday when he delivered a speech to laborers on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

He hasn’t taken a question from reporters since gaggling at an event in Baltimore last Tuesday.

Later that same day, Biden created an uproar in remarks to Latino activists when he responded to racist comments at a Trump rally made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the US island territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris hurtled toward an uncertain finish on Tuesday as millions of Americans headed to the polls to choose between two sharply different visions for the country.

A race churned by unprecedented events – two assassination attempts against Trump, Biden's surprise withdrawal and Harris' rapid rise – remained neck and neck as Election Day dawned, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.