EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said officials are trying to free a Swedish man who had been detained in Iran for more than a year. File Photo by Nabil Mounzer/EPA-EFE
Sept. 5 (UPI) — Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, on Tuesday confirmed that a Swedish citizen has been detained for more than a year.
Borrell told reporters that John Floderus, who had worked for the European External Action Service had been “detained illegally in Iran for the last 500 days.”
“I want to stress that I personally, all my team, at all levels, European institutions in close coordination with the Swedish authorities — which have the first responsibility of consular protection — and with his family, have been pushing the Iranian authorities to release him,” Borrell said. “Every time we had diplomatic meetings, at all levels, we have put the issue on the table. Relentlessly.”
Floderus, 33, was detained on April 17, 2022, as he prepared to leave Tehran after visiting Iran last spring on a private tourist trip with several Swedish friends, The New York Times reported.
The Times described the incident as a case of “hostage diplomacy,” under which Iran has been detaining dual Iranian nationals and foreigners in their borders and holding them on questionable charges. Some of those same detainees at times become part of leverage in negotiations in exchange for Iranians held abroad, cash or other concessions.
Sweden’s Foreign Affairs Minister Tobias Billstrom told Politico Monday that the government is working “very intensively on this case” without identifying Floderus or providing specific details.
“The person in question has been arbitrarily deprived of his freedom and should therefore be released immediately. This message has been conveyed, including by me personally. Beyond that, I cannot go into any more detail” Billstrom said.
In August, Iran freed five U.S. residents held hostage in exchange for $6 billion frozen by the United States in oil revenue and with some Iranian prisoners.