Five-Year Prison Sentence for Saeed Azizi, Dual National; Reza Shafakhah: My Client's Health Condition Has Deteriorated

Simultaneously with the issuance of a five-year prison sentence for Saeed Azizi, an Iranian-Swedish citizen, his lawyer reported the deterioration of this prisoner's health and his inability to endure imprisonment. According to Harana, the news agency of human rights activists in Iran, on Saturday, February 10, the 26th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Saeed Azizi, 60, to five years in prison on charges of 'conspiracy and collusion to commit a crime.' Meanwhile, Reza Shafakhah, the lawyer of this dual national, reported that his client is suffering from prostate cancer and is unable to endure prison. The lawyer wrote on the messaging platform 'X' that Saeed Azizi, who has prostate cancer, 'recently fell down the stairs in prison, and his physical condition has worsened.' According to Harana, Mr. Azizi, who traveled from Sweden to Iran on November 12 of this year, was arrested by government forces at his home in Tehran. Earlier, the Swedish Foreign Ministry issued a statement regarding the arrest of a Swedish-Iranian man 'without any specific reason' at the end of 2023 and called for the immediate release of Swedish citizens detained in Iran. Additionally, reports indicate that at least two other Swedish citizens, including Johan Flodros, an employee of the European Union, are currently detained in Iran. Human Rights Watch stated in a statement regarding Johan Flodros that 'his prolonged detention follows the pattern of arbitrary detentions of dual nationals and foreign citizens, effectively hostages, used as bargaining chips in the Islamic Republic's diplomatic disputes.' Experts say that the Islamic Republic uses false charges to detain foreign citizens, especially those with dual nationality, to use them as political bargaining tools, effectively taking these citizens hostage. Following the arrest of Hamid Noury, a former deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison in Sweden and his trial for his role in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s, relations between Tehran and Stockholm have soured. A senior Swedish intelligence official confirmed the Islamic Republic's plot to kill Jews in this European country.