The decision may have an impact on the Swedish EU diplomat who has been imprisoned in Iran since spring last year.
in Sweden The Svea Court of Appeal sentenced a 62-year-old Iranian man to life imprisonment on Tuesday. The Court of Appeal therefore did not change the verdict given by the Stockholm District Court last year.
The decision can have an impact to the Swedish EU diplomatwho has been imprisoned in Iran since the spring of last year.
Iranian Hamid Noury, 62, was sentenced to life in prison last year for numerous murders and crimes against international law. The crimes took place more than 30 years ago. There are almost 50 interested parties in the case.
Noury worked as an assistant to the deputy warden of Gohardasht prison in Iran in the 1980s. He had previously worked as a judge and in a high-ranking position in Iran's Ministry of Justice.
Thousands of political prisoners were executed in Iran at the end of the 80s. The charges have been brought for the executions and tortures that took place between the end of July and mid-August of 1988.
The Swedish authorities received information about the crimes from a group of several dozen complainants and a former political prisoner From Iraj Mesdagh. After gathering thousands of pages of evidence against the accused Iranian man, Mesdaghi lured him to Sweden by promising him a luxury cruise.
Noury was arrested in November 2019 at the airport in Stockholm.
Swedish there has been widespread speculation in the media that Noury would be replaced by a Swedish EU diplomat To Johan Floderus.
In the spring of 2022, Floderus traveled to Iran together with his friends. According to the family, it was a holiday trip. During the trip, Floderus was arrested. He has been imprisoned in an Iranian prison for more than 600 days.
Floderus is accused in Iran of, among other things, espionage and corruption.
Professor of International Law Mark Klamberg emphasized to the news agency AFP that whatever the court's decision is on Tuesday, it will be appealed to the Supreme Court, so a possible decision on the exchange of prisoners can only be made after this.
According to Klamberg, there are two ways to a possible exchange.
“The government could pardon Noury. However, I don't think that will happen, it would be politically impossible”, the professor believed.
A more likely way would be for Iran and Sweden to agree that Noury would serve the end of his sentence in Iran, which in reality would mean that he would be released upon his return to Iran.
However, according to Klamberg, agreeing to the exchange would be problematic because it would encourage Iran to continue with “hostage diplomacy” in which arbitrarily imprisoned Western citizens would be used as political pawns.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström has not agreed to comment on a possible exchange.
#Sweden #Court #Appeal #upheld #Iranian #man39s #prison #sentence #exchange #Swedish #diplomat
