COPENHAGEN: The Swedish European Union diplomat who was held in Iran for two years and freed in a prisoner swap over the weekend said Tuesday that his release was “the dream that I sometimes did not dare to believe in.”
Johan Floderus and a second Swedish citizen, Saeed Azizi, returned to Sweden on Saturday in exchange for Hamid Nouri, an Iranian convicted in Stockholm of committing war crimes over his part in 1988 mass executions in the Islamic Republic.
Floderus was arrested in April 2022 at the Tehran airport while returning from a vacation with friends. He had been held for months before his family and others went public with his detention.
“After two long years, I am finally a free man, reunited with my family, my fiance, and will be able to marry,” he said in a statement to Swedish media. “The dream that I sometimes did not dare to believe in has come true — to be back with my loved ones and to live my life in freedom.”
Sweden’s Expressen tabloid posted a video of Floderus on his knee at the airport on Saturday and appearing to be proposing to his fiance. In the background stood Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who had welcomed Floderus and Azizi at the airport and said they had faced a “hell on earth.”
The swap was mediated by Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula that has long served as an interlocutor between Iran and the West. It came as the Muslim world celebrates Eid Al-Adha, which marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage and typically sees prisoners freed.
The arrest of Nouri by Sweden in 2019 as he traveled there as a tourist likely sparked the detentions of the two Swedes, part of a long-running strategy by Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution to use those with ties abroad as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West. Iran long has contended it doesn’t hold prisoners to use in negotiations, despite years of multiple swaps with the US and other nations showing otherwise.
In 2022, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Nouri to life in prison. It identified him as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the Gohardasht prison outside the Iranian city of Karaj.
Saturday’s swap did not include Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian expert on disaster medicine whom a UN panel long has described as being arbitrarily detained by Tehran since 2016. He is currently being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
In an appeal to Kristersson, Swedish broadcaster SVT on Tuesday carried an audio message from Djalali, who faces possible execution after being convicted on charges of “corruption on Earth” in 2017.
“Mister prime minister, you decided to leave me behind under huge risk of being executed,” Djalali said in the message. “You left me here helpless. Why not me? After 3,000 days.”
A Swedish diplomat says his release from a 2-year detention in Iran is like a dream
https://arab.news/r6rst
A Swedish diplomat says his release from a 2-year detention in Iran is like a dream
- “The dream that I sometimes did not dare to believe in has come true — to be back with my loved ones and to live my life in freedom,” said Floderus
- Sweden’s Expressen tabloid posted a video of Floderus on his knee at the airport on Saturday and appearing to be proposing to his fiancé
French policeman to go on trial over 2023 killing of teen that sparked riots
“This order for a trial is both disappointing and not surprising,” said the officer’s lawyer
PARIS: The French policeman who shot and killed a teenager at point-blank range in 2023 outside Paris, sparking days of riots, is to go on trial on a murder charge, a court and prosecutors said Tuesday.
The trial of the officer, who has been charged with the murder of Nahel M., 17, could take place in the second or third quarter of 2026, the court and prosecutor in the Paris suburb of Nanterre where the killing took place said in a joint statement.
The officer, identified as Florian M., was released from custody in November 2023 after five months in detention.
Mobile footage of him shooting Nahel inside a car during a traffic control on a busy street went viral. The anger sparked protests that degenerated into rioting and led to scenes of devastation nationwide.
The police initially maintained that Nahel had driven his car at the officer but this was
contradicted by the video, which showed two officers standing outside a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at its driver.
“This order for a trial is both disappointing and not surprising,” said Laurent-Franck Lienard, the officer’s lawyer.
“The investigating judge would have had to be courageous to take a different position than that of the prosecution” which pushed for the trial, the lawyer told AFP, adding that he would lodge an appeal against the order.
“We maintain that the shooting was legitimate,” he said.
Frank Berton, the lawyer for Nahel’s mother, expressed his “satisfaction” over the move.
“We are just seeing the law being applied... Now all that remains is to convince the court,” he said.
The move to try the officer over the death of Nahel, who was of north African origin, comes against the background of new tensions in France over racism and security.
A man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbor and badly wounded a Turkish man in the south of France at the weekend, and a Malian man was stabbed to death in a mosque in April.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not taking a strong enough stance against such crimes and even fueling a racist climate.
But he said Monday that “every racist act is an anti-French act.”
Russia says no quick ‘breakthroughs’ in ‘complex’ Ukraine talks
- “The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,” Peskov said
- Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of “deliberately” targeting civilians in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy
MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks, a day after Moscow rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul.
The sides agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their roadmaps to peace, or so-called “memorandums,” at the discussions, which lasted under two hours.
More than three years into Russia’s offensive — which has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine — the two sides appear as irreconcilable as ever.
“The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
“It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs,” he added.
Moscow demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed as a precondition to pausing its offensive, according to the document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media.
Kyiv had pressed for a full and unconditional ceasefire. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks.
Peskov also dismissed the idea of a summit between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
“In the near future, it is unlikely,” Peskov told reporters when asked about the chances of the leaders meeting, adding that such a summit could only happen after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reach an “agreement.”
The White House had said on Monday US President Donald Trump was “open” to the idea, which is also backed by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of “deliberately” targeting civilians in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border, that killed three people.
Russian troops have accelerated their advance, seeking to establish what Putin called a “buffer zone” inside Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.
Zelensky posted a video from the emergency services showing destroyed cars and the body of one victim lying on the road.
The attack “says everything one needs to know about Russia’s so-called ‘desire’ to end this war,” he added, calling for “decisive actions” from the United States and Europe to push Russia into a ceasefire.
“Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defense,” he said.
Three people were also killed in a rocket attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Moscow’s army said it had captured the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region, located around five kilometers from the Russian border.
Zelensky said last week that Russia was amassing some 50,000 soldiers for an offensive on the region.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed it had hit a pillar of the Crimean bridge, linking the annexed peninsula to Russia, with an underwater explosive device.
The extent of the damage was unclear and cars were on Tuesday using the bridge following a temporary closure after the attack.
A delegation of top Ukrainian officials also landed in Washington for talks with US officials on defense and economic issues, including the possibility of new sanctions, Zelensky’s office said.
Trump, who said he could end the conflict swiftly when he returned to the White House in January, has repeatedly expressed anger at both Putin and Zelensky as the fighting drags through its fourth year with no end in sight.
But he has held off from imposing new economic penalties on Moscow.
Magnitude 5.2 earthquake strikes off Crete — EMSC
- The quake was at depth of 17 km
SARAJEVO: A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck in the sea off the Greek island of Crete on Tuesday but no damage or injuries have been reported, a Fire Service official said.
The quake was at depth of 17 km, 85 km away from the town of Heraklion, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center said.
Ukraine invited to NATO summit in The Hague: Zelensky
VILNIUS: Ukraine has been invited to a NATO summit later in June, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after earlier warning it would be a “victory” for Russia if it was not there.
The heads of NATO states will gather in The Hague, Netherlands, from June 24-26, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s calls for alliance members to ramp up defense spending set to dominate the agenda.
“We were invited to the NATO summit. I think this is important,” Zelensky said Monday after he held a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Vilnius.
Kyiv is seeking to shore up its support from Europe because of uncertainties over vital military aid under Trump.
Last week Zelensky had said that “if Ukraine is not present at the NATO summit, it will be a victory for Putin, but not over Ukraine, but over NATO.”
Zelensky wants NATO to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal with Russia — something Moscow has called “unacceptable.”
Support for Israel falling across Western Europe: YouGov
- As little as 20% of respondents in 6 surveyed countries hold positive views of Israel
- Trends mirrored in US polling, with negative sentiment among 53% of Americans
LONDON: Support for Israel in Western Europe has hit an all-time low amid the ongoing war in Gaza, according to YouGov.
Data compiled by the polling firm shows that less than 20 percent of respondents in six countries — Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the UK — have a favorable view of Israel, with unfavorable views accounting for 63-70 percent depending on the country.
The range for those surveyed who believe Israel’s actions in Gaza have been “right” and “proportionate” goes from 16 percent in France to as low as 6 percent in Italy. In the UK, 12 percent believe Israel’s response has been proportionate.
The question of whether Israel was right to invade Gaza following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, is slightly higher, with 29 percent of Italians and 40 percent of Germans agreeing. However, 24 percent of Italians and 12 percent of Germans feel that Israel should not have invaded Gaza at all. In the UK, 38 percent feel that the invasion was warranted, with 15 percent disagreeing.
Just 24-25 percent of French, German and Danish respondents feel that Israel has any justification continuing operations in Gaza. The total is 18 percent in the UK and 9 percent in Italy.
The highest number of people on Israel’s “side” in Western Europe is 18 percent in Denmark, while the lowest is Italy at 7 percent.
The lowest polled nation for supporting the Palestinian cause is Germany at 18 percent, while the highest is Spain at 33 percent.
The numbers of respondents believing that Hamas had any justification attacking Israel range from 9 percent to 5 percent. In the UK, the number is 6 percent.
Respondents are pessimistic about the prospects for peace in the region. The French audience is the most optimistic, with 29 percent saying they believe peace is possible in the next decade. At the other end of the spectrum is Denmark with just 15 percent.
The trends mirror polling from outside Europe. In April, Pew Research Center polling found that 53 percent of Americans held a negative view of Israel, up from 44 percent in March 2022.
In addition, Data for Progress found that 51 percent of Americans disagreed with Israeli plans to take full control of Gaza and move Palestinian civilians.
The same percentage said US President Donald Trump should “demand that Israel agree to a ceasefire” in Gaza.
