Iran Accuses European Diplomat of ‘Cooperating with Israel’

Floderus was arrested at a time when an Iranian national was being tried in Sweden (Mizan news/AFP)
Floderus was arrested at a time when an Iranian national was being tried in Sweden (Mizan news/AFP)
TT

Iran Accuses European Diplomat of ‘Cooperating with Israel’

Floderus was arrested at a time when an Iranian national was being tried in Sweden (Mizan news/AFP)
Floderus was arrested at a time when an Iranian national was being tried in Sweden (Mizan news/AFP)

Iranian authorities have accused a Swedish EU diplomat, held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days, of conspiring with Iran's arch-enemy Israel, the judiciary said Sunday.
“Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and corruption on earth,” the judiciary's Mizan Online news agency said, according to AFP.
Corruption on earth is one of Iran's most serious offenses and carries a maximum penalty of death.
Floderus, 33, was arrested on April 17, 2022, at Tehran airport as he was returning to Iran from a trip with friends.
The Swede, who works for the European Union diplomatic service, is being held in Tehran's Evin prison.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström said: “There is no basis whatsoever for keeping Johan Floderus in detention, let alone bringing him to trial.”
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, called for his immediate release, saying: “There are absolutely no grounds for keeping Johan Floderus in detention.”
The prosecution claimed Floderus had gathered information on Iran's “nuclear and enrichment programs,” carried out “subversive projects” for the benefit of Israel and established a network of “agents of the Swedish intelligence service.”
It further claimed he was involved in “intelligence cooperation and communication with the European Union” and exiled opposition group, the People's Mujahedin (MEK), according to Mizan.
Floderus’s case was not revealed publicly at first while the Swedish government and the EU worked quietly behind the scenes for his release.
In September, the Floderus family broke the silence and called for intensified efforts to secure his release.
At the time, Iran’s judiciary said Floderus had “committed crimes” in the country and an investigation into his case was being finalized.
An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP in September that they had not received “a clear answer” as to why Floderus had been detained.
And 600 days after Floderus was detained by Iranian authorities, Human Rights Watch called for his immediate release adding that Swedish authorities should do more to ensure that happens.
“The immediate and unconditional release of Floderus and others arbitrary detained should be a top priority for Sweden as well as for the EU in relations with Iran,” it said.
Iran has long used detained foreign nationals as bargaining chips to secure the release of its citizens or frozen funds held abroad.
Floderus's arrest came 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.
EU relations with Iran have also been battered by Tehran's deliveries of weaponry to Russia and a crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.
The 27-nation EU has placed repeated rounds of sanctions on Iran over the weapons supplies and the repression of demonstrators.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."