Iran: Swedish EU employee on trial for 'spying for Israel'

Iran said on Sunday that the trial of a Swedish national working for the European Union has started. The man is accused of spying for Israel and “corruption on earth,” a felony for which the death penalty is applicable.

Sweden announced on Saturday that Johan Floderus’ trial has started. Floderus was arrested in April 2022 while on vacation in Iran; the charges against him were not disclosed.

In an online post published on Sunday, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported that Floderus’s trial had commenced and that the charges against him were “wide intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime, widespread activities against national security, and corruption on earth,” an apparent reference to Israel.

According to Islamic law in Iran, corruption on earth is a deadly offence.

Human rights organisations and governments in the West have accused the Islamic Republic of attempting to use fabricated security allegations to force political concessions out of other nations. Tehran claims that these arrests follow its criminal code and that it does not keep anyone for political purposes.

Since Sweden detained a former Iranian official in 2019 for his involvement in the mass killing and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s, relations between Iran and Sweden have been cold.

According to the judiciary, Floderus collected intelligence for Israel through projects run by American and European organisations. It stated that more hearing information would be released later.

(With agency inputs)