Swedish EU Employee: I Made Chess and Poker Cards from Cardboard in Evin

Johan Flodros, a Swedish citizen and EU employee who was released during a prisoner exchange between Iran and Sweden, shared his two-year experience of detention and imprisonment in an interview with Politico. The 34-year-old EU employee explained his daily activities during his imprisonment, including that he only had 'three 20-minute sessions' of fresh air outside his cell each week and used cardboard to make chess and poker cards in the general ward. Johan Flodros traveled to Iran in the spring of 2022 for 'tourism' with several friends but was arrested on April 17 of that year while intending to return. He was accused by the Iranian judiciary of 'espionage' and 'corruption on earth,' which could have led to a death sentence. He, along with another Swedish citizen named Saeed Azizi, was released on June 16 of this year through Omani mediation in exchange for Hamid Noury, who was known by the alias 'Hamid Abasi' during the political prisoner executions in 1988. According to Politico's report, Mr. Flodros was initially transferred to a solitary cell of 40 square meters after his arrest. During this time, to pass the time, he walked six hours a day in the cell and exercised for two hours. In the early days of his detention, he thought a mistake had occurred and that he would soon return to Brussels on the next flight. However, he soon realized that his interrogators considered his previous trips to Iran, which he undertook as an EU official for projects related to Afghan refugees, as 'espionage activities.' He stated about this accusation: 'All of this [apparently] indicated that my real intention and that of the EU was to overthrow the regime.' Johan Flodros also mentioned that he learned about the reason for his arrest from other prisoners after being transferred from solitary confinement to the general ward. He noted that when he explained his situation to other prisoners, they immediately responded: 'You are a hostage. Have you ever heard of someone named Hamid Noury in Sweden?' After his release, in a phone conversation with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, he said: 'I often dreamed of my day of freedom, but then I would wake up on the damn concrete floor. Now that I have exited Iranian airspace and am on my way home, it is becoming believable for me.' This Swedish citizen proposed to his boyfriend just moments after returning to Stockholm. He told Politico that Iranian officials knew he had a boyfriend at the time of his detention because they had checked his mobile phone. Nevertheless, he kept his sexual orientation hidden due to being imprisoned with murderers and ISIS members. Following this exchange, many human rights activists criticized the actions of the Swedish government, including Amnesty International, which described Hamid Noury's release as 'shocking.' Hamid Noury, 62, was arrested by Swedish police on November 9, 2019, upon arrival at Stockholm airport on a direct flight from Iran, based on complaints from human rights activists and opponents of the Iranian government. A court in Sweden sentenced him to life imprisonment in July 2022 for 'gross violations of international humanitarian law and murder.' Iranian security agencies have repeatedly used the detention of dual nationals or foreign citizens to gain leverage from Western governments or to exchange their prisoners. The Iranian government usually condemns foreign nationals with charges such as 'acting against national security' and 'espionage,' but does not provide clear evidence to substantiate these accusations. Human rights activists believe that prisoner exchanges with the Iranian government will perpetuate this regime's 'hostage-taking' policy and that other methods should be chosen for the release of hostages in Iran.