EU demands release of EC official arrested in Iran on espionage charges

The EU demands the immediate release of an employee of the EU foreign policy service, which is a structural unit of the European Commission, arrested in Iran on charges of espionage, EU diplomatic service representative Nabila Massrali said, Report informs referring to TASS.

The EU calls for the immediate release of Swedish citizen and European Commission employee Johan Floderus. The EU insists that he is innocent. The EU intends to raise this issue in all contacts with the Iranian side, she noted.

Iran said that it had begun the trial of a Swedish national employed by the European Union who is charged with spying for Israel and "corruption on earth," a crime that carries the death penalty.

Sweden said that the trial had begun of Johan Floderus, who was detained in April 2022 while on holiday in Iran, but did not say what he was charged with.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said in an online report on Sunday that Floderus's trial had begun and that he was indicted "based on corruption on earth, widespread activities against national security (and) wide intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime", a reference to Israel.

Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since 2019 when Sweden arrested a former Iranian official for his part in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s.