Johan Floderus, who was arrested at Tehran airport in April final yr, is charged with working by US and European initiatives.
Iran says it has begun the trial of a Swedish nationwide employed by the European Union who’s charged with spying for Israel and “corruption on earth”, against the law that carries the dying penalty.
Johan Floderus was indicted “based on corruption on earth, widespread activities against national security [and] wide intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime”, a reference to Israel, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan information company mentioned in an internet report on Sunday.
Corruption on earth is a capital offence below Iran’s Islamic legal guidelines.
Floderus, 33, was arrested on April 17, 2022, at Tehran airport as he was returning to Iran from a visit with pals. The Swede, who works for the EU diplomatic service, is being held in Tehran’s Evin jail.
Mizan printed images of a handcuffed Floderus showing earlier than judges in a pale blue jail uniform as the fees had been learn.
Iran’s judiciary, in a press release, mentioned Floderus had operated by initiatives by the USA and European establishments to collect intelligence for Israel.
Iranian officers mentioned he had been in contact with a number of European and non-European suspects in Iran and had visited Israel, Iran’s foe, earlier than visiting Iran. The assertion accused Sweden of proxy spying for Israel.
Sweden on Sunday mentioned the trial of Floderus has begun in Iran however didn’t say what he was charged with.
“Johan Floderus has been arbitrarily detained and every accusation and charge is false,” a spokesperson for Sweden’s Overseas Ministry mentioned in an emailed remark to the Reuters information company.
“We have conveyed this clearly to Iran at different levels and times, the most recent being yesterday [Saturday].”
Floderus’s household has mentioned he was detained “without any justifiable cause or due process”.
The EU’s prime international coverage chief Josep Borrell on Sunday known as for his rapid launch, saying “there are absolutely no grounds for keeping Johan Floderus in detention”.
Sweden’s Overseas Minister Tobias Billstrom added: “There is no basis whatsoever for keeping Johan Floderus in detention, let alone bringing him to trial.”
Rights teams and Western governments have accused Iran of making an attempt to extract political concessions from different nations by arrests on safety prices that will have been trumped up.
Tehran says such arrests are primarily based on its prison code and it denies holding individuals for political causes.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since 2019 when Sweden arrested Hamid Noury, a former Iranian official for his half within the mass execution and torture of political prisoners within the Eighties.
Noury finally obtained a life sentence in July 2022. The Court docket of Appeals in Sweden is predicted to announce a verdict within the case on December 19.
In Could this yr, Iran executed Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Farajollah Chaab, convicted of main a separatist group Tehran blames for a number of assaults, together with one on a army parade in 2018 that killed 25 individuals.
