Iran and Sweden have completed a prisoner swap, according to the Oman government, which mediated the process.
Citizens from both countries were flown to Muscat, the capital of the small state on the Persian Gulf, on Saturday.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed that two Swedish citizens were on their way home.
According to information from Tehran, Hamid N., who was sentenced to life in prison in Sweden in the late 1980s for mass executions of political prisoners in Iran, was released. The Iranian, 63, was sentenced in Stockholm in July 2022.
There was no confirmation of this from Stockholm. Kristersson said only that Iran had turned the two Swedes into “a pawn in a cynical negotiation game aimed at freeing Iranian citizen Hamid N.” from Swedish custody.
EU worker Johan Floderus and Said Asisi, who were sentenced to five years in prison in Iran, have been released by Tehran, Kristersson said. At least one other Swedish citizen, doctor Ahmad Resa Jalali, remains in an Iranian prison.
Relations between Sweden and Iran had recently cooled significantly due to the diplomatic affairs. In May last year, Tehran executed a Swedish-Iranian dissident accused of terrorist activities. Critics had repeatedly accused Iran of trying to free Hamid N. by jailing Swedish citizens.
