(Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the Chief of Islamic Republic Judiciary, Iran International 4th February 2019)
The Origins of Iranian Political Hostage Taking and the Hamid Nouri Prisoner Exchange
The Origins of Iranian Political Hostage Taking
Let us not forget where Iranian foreign hostage taking originated. The Iranian revolution or Islamic Revolution started on the 7th January 1978 and ended on the 11th February 1979. In November 1979 an Iranian group calling themselves “The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line” also known as “The Muslim Students of the Imam Khomeini Line” stormed and invaded the United States Embassy Compound in Tehran and captured the staff. The “students” held the 52 United States diplomats and citizens hostage from the 4th November 1979 to 20th January 1981, a total of 444 days.
Although the Iranians claimed they were guests and treated with respect, on release a different story emerged. The hostages were beaten, handcuffed for long periods from a few days to weeks, the endured long periods of solitary confinement, months of not being allowed to speak to another person or leave a certain space unless it was to the toilet. They were threatened regularly with mock executions, beatings and guards playing Russian roulette with the hostages. Some of the individual hostages suffered different psychological and mental tortures. One individual had mail held back from him with the guard asking him if his wife had found someone else. Other hostages were threatened with having their feet boiled in oil or amputation or threatening their families in the United States. In captivity these types of threats would play on an individual’s mind and become a “self-induced pressure” applied by a “system induced pressure” when an individual has little else to focus on in captivity.
In power during the “hostage crisis” episode was Democratic President Jimmy Carter whose administration was responsible for the negotiation and safe release of the hostages. The initial demands by the Iranians for their release were:
- Expression of remorse or an apology for the United States role in Iran.
- Unlocking of Iranian assets in America.
- Withdraw any legal claims against Iran arising from the embassy seize.
- Promise not to interfere in the future.
- The unfreezing of $7.9 billion of Iranian assets.
- Immunity from lawsuits Iran might face in America.
- A pledge by the United States that “it is and from now on will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran’s internal affairs.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran and their use of Political Hostage Taking
On the 15th June 2024 Arab news outlets led with a story regarding a prisoner swap between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Sweden. Relations between the two countries had been somewhat strained over the years due to Sweden charging and sentencing a member of Iran to a life sentence and Iran taking Swedish citizens in retaliation.
The prisoner exchange had taken place after negotiations held between the two countries and assisted by the Sultanate of Oman. At the time of the news breaking the Iranian prisoner was on his way back to Iran and the two Swedish political prisoners were on their way back to Sweden.
The difference between ‘prisoner’ and ‘political prisoner’ are two different things. The Iranian prisoner had been legally arrested, formally charged with a crime or crimes under the correct use of law, sentenced in accordance with that law and given a prison sentence all within a legal open framework. He would have had legal representation from the beginning whereby their defence can be built before going to trial. The trial would be in an open court with no restrictions on news and media reporting.
On the other hand, the Iranians illegally hold political prisoners in order that they can be used at a later date to gain concessions against another country in order to obtain what they want. Unlike Sweden or many other countries Iran will take hostage and imprison them under trumped up charges and held sometimes for months in solitary confinement, considered mental torture, without any knowledge of their crime.
They will be on a very poor diet with little or no exercise. They will be continually interrogated for hours at a time in an attempt to have the hostage confess to crimes that he/she has been charged with. They will not be allowed contact with the family who often go for months without confirmation that the hostage is being illegally held. The hostage will not be allowed any form of legal representation. At some point that hostage will be allowed to make a confession on a TV channel. The coercion for this may possibly be for better conditions or to be taken out of solitary confinement if they agree to be ‘interviewed’ live on air. Carrot and stick approach. Fail to be ‘interviewed on live TV and you stay in solitary confession. The captive would have little choice.
Then at some point that hostage will be formally charged as they have a live confession on air.
The hostage will have a lawyer picked by the Iranian court who will have had only a few minutes with his ‘client’ before going into the court room and protest their innocence. The trial will be a show trial where every piece of evidence will be in favour of the Iranian court. After the trial is finished the hostage will be found guilty and a sentence handed down.
Depending on the charges the hostage will be sentenced to either 5 years in prison or if the charges are for giving information to Israel or corruption on earth when they cannot find any other reason will be sentenced to death by hanging.
That is roughly how the Islamic Republic of Iran judicial system works in the cases of political hostages.
The Prisoner/Hostage Exchange
The prisoners and hostages being exchanged where Hamid Nouri an Iranian citizen and two Swedish hostages, Johan Floderus and a dual citizen Saeed Azizi. Iran does not recognise dual citizenship.
Floderus, a European Union employee, was arrested in Iran in 2022 and charged with spying for Israel and “corruption on earth,” a crime that carries the death penalty. Johan Floderus was a Swedish diplomat and European Union official. He began working for the European Commission in 2019, serving as an aide to the then-incumbent European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, before joining the European External Action Service two years later. He was arrested in Iran on 17th April 2022, while on holiday and was held captive for over 500 days. Iran had accused him of espionage, a charge that was deemed baseless by Swedish authorities
Saeed Azizi, a Swedish/Iranian dual national, was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security.” He was arrested by Iranian security forces on the 12th November 2023, at his house shortly after his return from Sweden to Iran.
Hamid Nouri
Hamid Nouri is an Iranian national who was arrested in Sweden at the Stockholm Arlanda Airport on the 9th November 2019 and underwent trial in Sweden for his alleged actions against Iranian’s who opposed Ayatollah Khomeini after he took control of Iran in 1979. Thousands of people were questioned in 1988. Their fates were sealed on simple questions similar to, ‘who they stood for’ or ‘who they supported’ and ‘their political activities’ did they ‘believe and follow Allah?’ Male and female (although some females were treated differently) were then sent to locations where they were summarily executed.
It is believed that there were tens of thousands of people who were exterminated by the death commission but numbers are contested. The murders were on the authority of a 1988 fatwa (a legal ruling on a point of Islamic Law (Sharia)) ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini. One such person who was responsible for the mass murders was the Islamic Republic of Iran’s 2021 elected President, Ebrahim Raisi who recently perished in a helicopter crash on the 19th May 2024.
But while many of the participants of the killings have so far escaped justice for this abhorrent act of slaughter, occasionally, one clears the parapet and is caught. No one in the past had been criminally prosecuted for the many deaths in Iran, Nouri was to be the first.
Those who supporters of the People’s Mujaheddin of Iran[1] were the majority of those killed but there were others who belonged to leftist factions including the Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian[2] which was an Iranian left-wing opposition political party and the Tudeh Party of Iran (Communist Party)[3]. The execution of the political prisoners started on the 19th July 1988 and continued for approximately five months. Those executed were placed on to fork lift vehicles, six at a time or hung from cranes at thirty-minute intervals. These murders were kept hidden and the Islamic Republic of Iran has denied that they took place.
Hamid Nouri is one such person who was involved. Nouri was a deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Iran. He arrived in Sweden in 2019 and was promptly arrested and accused of committing war crimes, charges to which he denied. Nouri was being accused of providing names to prosecutors who were giving out death sentences and taking prisoners to the execution chambers. The Swedish authorities made clear that the charges were being brought under the heading of “universal jurisdiction” whereby Sweden’s national framework on universal jurisdiction “provides the authority to national courts to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed on foreign territory by foreign nationals.” The briefing paper ‘Universal Jurisdiction Law and Practice in Sweden dated April 2020’ states that “it focuses on the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture’.
On the 2nd May 2022 the Swedish ambassador was summoned in Tehran to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Tehran was protesting at the ‘continued imprisonment’ of former Iranian official Hamid Nouri over “alleged human rights” issues. Tehran was strongly protesting at the baseless and false allegations levelled by the Swedish prosecutor against Iran. The Foreign Ministry’s director general for West European affairs described the court proceedings and detention of Nouri as completely illegal and under the influence of baseless and false moves and claims of the terrorist group of MKO and also condemned the hostile propaganda against Iran. He also called for an end to the political show trial at the Swedish court and ‘demanded’ the release of Nouri, the Iranian citizen incarcerated in the European country. Tasnimne propaganda news outlet claimed that Nouri had been held in solitary confinement for over two years and that his family had been refused access to visit him.
On the 5th May 2022 again the Tasnimne news outlet wrote that “the foreign minister of Iran deplored Sweden’s illegal move to keep in custody and put on trial former Iranian official Hamid Nouri, demanding his immediate release.” And, “Tehran considers the detention and the court process against the Iranian national illegal and ‘demands’ his immediate release.” The Iranians were probably more concerned about what Nouri would divulge under questioning and the damning effects this information would disclose.
The trial finished in early May 2022 with a verdict expected in July 2022. Nouri clutched a Quran and raised his palms as he told the court on Wednesday, "I hope these hands will be cleared ... with the help of God.” Dramatist. Relations between Sweden and Iran were not going to get better especially as Swedish prosecutors were asking for a life sentence.
The Tehran Times got its propaganda machine into full swing and published an article on the 7th May 2022 making a full range and accusations in an attempt to move any public opinion away from why Nouri was imprisoned and the accusations against him. The story began with the family of Nouri claiming that the head of the family had been mistreated whilst in custody that he'd been held in solidarity confinement, physically assaulted by prison staff and that he had been subjected to mental torture. Iranian authorities were stating that the detention of Nouri was unlawful but his family had been harassed by anti-Iran dissidents at the arrival and departure oat the court house. “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the detention and trial of Hamid Nouri, an Iranian citizen, illegal and demands his immediate release,” Amir Abdollahian was believed to have said to his counterpart, Ann Linde in a phone conversation.
The Times newspaper also went on to say, “the trial of Nouri has become an excuse for some to ignore a historical fact in the history of the MEK terrorist group.” It was time to deflect all facts surrounding the case and blame it elsewhere. Deflection.
The MEK had been accused of assisting Iraq during the 1980-1988 war against Iran and attempting to stop the Iranian revolution of 1979. Hence Iran’s bitter distaste against the MEK.
An extract from the Tehran Times dated 7 May 2022:
“During the arrest and the 90 trials held by the MEK and the Swedish judicial system, the MEK members who testify as witnesses against Nouri have repeatedly claimed that they carried out independent actions and at no time cooperated with the Baathist army under Saddam Hussein's command, and has not fought against the Iranian people. Kenneth Lewis, a lawyer for the MEK terrorist group who appears in court as a witness and plaintiff in the case, disagreed with part of the Swedish prosecutor's indictment, saying, “There was no ‘armed conflict between Iran and Iraq’, and the MEK’s armed conflict with the Iranian government was a "non-international armed conflict." He also acknowledged that there was cooperation between former MEK leader Massoud Rajavi and Saddam Hussein, but stressed that there was no evidence that the MEK was part of the Iraqi army. The allegation comes as there are hundreds of documents, written, oral testimonies and video evidence that Rajavi met frequently with Saddam and other Baathist officials and asked them for financial and military assistance for terrorist acts against Iranians. The culmination of this assistance was manifested in Operation Forough Javidan. "As you know, I was in Paris from 1981 to 1986," Rajavi said in a meeting with General Tahir Jalil, head of the Iraqi General Intelligence Agency in 1999, referring to previous relations of the MEK group with the U.S. and France. “In those years ... we were not called terrorists, even though they knew who blew up the Republican Party’s Headquarters in Iran ... they knew who and what destroyed the president and prime minister of the regime. Both the White House and the Elysee Palace, with which we were in contact, knew well, but they did not call us terrorists at all,” he said. MEK not only fought against Iran along with Saddam’s army, they were also used as a tool by the Saddam regime to suppress Shia opponents in the south and the Kurds in north.”
Although it is believed that the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) assisted in Nouri’s arrest and that there were protesters outside the court house there is no mention of their involvement in the charges against Nouri nor the involvement of the MEK with Saddam Hussein. All this was a clear technique of diverting the blame elsewhere by the Iranian authorities. The report could go no further nor could it be allowed to give the truth as to why Nouri had been arrested, sent to trail and found guilty. To do so would be an admission of guilt that it had murdered thousands of Iranian people for no real reason at all. Although some of the points in the article is correct they had nothing to do with Nouri nor his involvement in the killings by Iranian authorities after the revolution.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has to Take its Revenge
Johan Floderus a member of the EU diplomatic corps had been covertly detained in Iran for over 500 days as part of Iran's hostage diplomacy, it was reported in the New York Times and Iran International on the 4th September 2022.
Johan Floderus, 33, who worked for the European Union's diplomatic corps, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2022 as he prepared to depart the country after what was described as a private tourist trip with friends. In July 2022, the Iranian government released a statement announcing that it had apprehended a Swedish national for espionage who was being held in Evin prison, however they did not disclose any further details. The New York Times spoke to six individuals with first-hand knowledge of the case, who all confirmed that Floderus’ had nothing to do with any espionage claims.
The European External Action Service, the diplomatic service for which Floderus worked confirmed that they have been following the case very closely and that his arrest “underlines the very concerning tendency of Iranians to use EU nationals or Iranian dual nationals as pawns for political reasons."
The following day EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed the prisoner’s name and that he worked for the EU diplomatic corps. “I want to say something about, if you allow me, a specific case, the case of Mr Floderus. He’s a Swedish citizen who worked for the European Union and has been detained illegally in Iran for the last 500 days.”
Member of the European Parliament Hannah Neumann along with others expressed their concern stating, "we have some questions regarding the hostage-taking case of Johan Floderus."
Iran’s judiciary confirmed through the Arab News on the 12th September 2023 confirmed that a Swedish national working for the European Union had been detained. Sweden and the European Union Commission said last week a Swedish national was being detained in Iran. Sweden said Johan Floderus was detained in April 2022 for what his family said was alleged spying.
“The Swedish national has been lawfully imprisoned following a preliminary inquiry and the results of a full investigation into his case made by the prosecutor’s office will be sent in the coming days to a competent court,” Iran’s judiciary spokesperson, Masoud Setayeshi, said. The spokesperson did not detail the precise charges faced by Floderus. 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. He was sentenced to life in prison last year, prompting Iran to recall its envoy to Sweden in protest.
In December 2023 it was announced that an Iranian court had begun the trial of a Swedish national employed by the European Union who was detained last year, Sweden’s foreign minister said. “I have been informed that the trial of Johan Floderus has begun in Tehran,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told Swedish news agency TT. “The Swedish charge d’affaires was at the court but was refused the right to participate in the trial. Sweden has ... requested the right to be present when the trial resumes.”
Rights groups and Western governments have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to extract political concessions from other countries through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran says such arrests are based on its criminal code and denies holding people for political reasons.
Iranian authorities had accused the Swedish EU diplomat, held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days, of conspiring with Israel to harm Iran, the judiciary said. “Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Israeli regime, and corruption on earth,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said.
Corruption on earth is one of Iran’s most serious offenses, which carries a maximum penalty of death. “The defendant has been active against Iran in the field of gathering information for the benefit of the Israeli regime in the form of subversive projects,” Mizan quoted the prosecution as saying.
The Swedish diplomat had been denied any kind of contact with his family during his first ten months in prison, while also receiving limited consular visits from the Swedish Embassy in Tehran. The conditions under which he was incarcerated were considered to be in violation of the United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners: reportedly, among other aspects, he had been detained in solitary confinement for over 300 days and, more generally, held in a constantly fully-lit cell; he had been denied of "basic human rights", including minimum food and medical support; he had been permitted only three-and-a-half hours of exposure to fresh air and sunlight per week; he had been significantly restricted in receiving letters and books, or sending correspondence. The family also stated that Floderus had finally been allowed to make phone calls to his family once a month since February 2023, and that he had chosen to go on hunger strike in order to raise their frequency, although the calls had to be held in English and had been subject to monitoring. On the 7th August 2023, the diplomat had been granted his first video call with his family, where he had reportedly made "a desperate plea", asking to raise efforts to free him and allow him to return home.
As of January 2024, no date had been set for the verdict as of the latest available information. After the trial had finished the Iranian prosecutors were seeking the maximum penalty (death penalty) for the man accused of spying for Israel.
Then on the 15th June 2024 there came the news of the prisoner/hostage swap.
Propaganda Value
Nothing financial had changed hands but the propaganda value is immense. Tasnim News concentrated on how Nouri was returning from a Swedish prison. The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Iran Nasser Kanaani said the liberation of Nouri, who had been imprisoned by Sweden under a plot masterminded by the Zionist regime and carried out by the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), has manifested Iran’s “diplomacy of might” in the fulfilment of its national interests and supporting the rights of Iranian citizens. There was no mention of how his release was obtained nor of the two Swedish hostages.
Tehran Times: Iran’s top human rights official has confirmed the release of Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judiciary official who had been detained in Sweden since 2019. Kazem Gharibabadi, head of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights, announced Nouri’s release via a post on his X account on the 15th June 2024.
"I am delighted to inform the esteemed nation of Iran that Hamid Nouri, who has been under detention in Sweden since 2019, has been released and will be returning to our country within a few hours," Gharibabadi stated.
Gharibabadi credited Nouri’s release to the persistent efforts of colleagues in the Judiciary, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. Nothing about sentencing an innocent man to death and putting pressure on a government in order to secure Nouri’s release.
The Times continued, Nasser Kanaani noted that Nouri's release from an illegitimate Swedish court ruling was achieved through persistent political, legal, and consular efforts by Iran's diplomatic apparatus, judiciary, and other relevant authorities.
He also emphasized the importance of acknowledging the special attention given by late President Ebrahim Raisi and the continuous efforts of the late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in securing Nouri's release.
The spokesman stressed that after enduring 1,680 days of unjust captivity, which violated fundamental human rights, Hamid Nouri has finally returned to his homeland and reunited with his patient family and loved ones.
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA): Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said that securing the release of Hamid Nouri demonstrated Iran’s strong diplomacy in safeguarding its national interests and strong support for the rights of the Iranians.
MEHR News Agency: Released Iranian national Hamid Nouri, who was illegally imprisoned in Sweden, arrived in Tehran on Saturday and spoke to media at the Iranian capital airport about his illegal detention in Sweden and had a message to MKO.
"The case was very difficult, complicated, important, sensitive, anxious and worrisome, and it took a lot of effort, and with the prayers of my family, dear people, friends, and colleagues, I am sure that the prayers were effective and God assisted in my case," Nouri said talking to reporters at the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.
"A message for the terrorists, Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), and especially the child-killing Israel, who were very pleased with my case. I am Hamid Nouri and I am in Tehran just before Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Ghadir and the day of Arafah,"
There was nothing in any of the propaganda reports stating that Johan Floderus had been illegally detained and wrongfully sentenced to death prompting the Swedish authorities to release Nouri for the safe return of two of their citizens. That truth was hidden from the Iranian public.
Other Cases of the Islamic Republic of Iran Using Political Hostages
Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Iran’s criminal code and denies that it holds hostage people for political gains. There are cases that show that this statement is incorrect. A clear example of this, was the case against Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
British-Australian scholar Kylie Moore-Gilbert was serving a ten-year sentence on ‘espionage charges’ and had been held in Evin prison. Although her arrest was announced in September 2019 her family stated that she had been held months before the authorities admitted to her detainment. She had been arrested in September 2018 at Tehran airport as she was departing the country having attended a conference. She was conducting research into revolutions in the Middle East in particular Bahraini politics and protests. Moore-Gilbert was held in Evin prison where she was held in solitary confinement (White Torture), used as a type of mental torture. She was arrested on trumped up espionage charges because she was in a relationship with an Israeli. The Iranian justice system created charges against her which were false and she denied. The alleged evidence against her ‘crimes’ were never made public. State-run TV stated that she had been recruited as an Israeli Mossad agent. The Iranian authorities accused her of collaborating with a former Bahraini MP who asked her to spy for the Al-Wefaq party. These methods are used to break down a person’s resolve and make them vulnerable to signing confessions, confessing on video to be exploited later or give information. She said she felt hopeless and isolated. The Iranians also attempted to recruit Kylie Moore-Gilbert to become their spy and they would then set her free. Another carrot and stick approach. In November 2020 she was exchanged for three Iranians who had been held in Thailand and were arrested and sentenced for a failed bomb attack in February 2012 in Bangkok. The intention of the Iranian assassination team involved was to kill Israeli diplomats in Thailand. The day before the attempt to kill Israeli’s in Bangkok there were other attacks on Israelis in different parts of the world by Iranian agents. Fortunately, on this occasion, the Iranians scored an own goal when one of the devices exploded in their safe house injuring one member. They all fled but were arrested. Iran denied any involvement when they were accused by Israel. Considering that Iran denied any involvement in the incident the Islamic Republic of Iran were happy to incarcerate Kylie Moore-Gilbert and later use her in an exchange for three of their own.
It’s not just people that Iran hold hostage.
In June 2021 Iran paid off some of the $16.2 million debt to the United Nations from funds frozen by United States sanctions that were held in South Korea. Iran blamed the ‘illegal US sanctions’ for the delay and for depriving the Iranian people of medicines, which is incorrect as US sanctions do not cover sanctions on Iranian medical requirements. At one point Iran held hostage the South Korean merchant ship MT Hankuk Chemi on alleged charges of “polluting the Persian Gulf with chemicals”. It was strongly believed that the vessel was held in order to force the South Korean government to release the $7 billion in Iranian money, most of which was for past oil exports. The money had been frozen because of United States sanctions on Iran. In April 2021 the merchant vessel was released. The Islamic Republic of Iran denied that it had held the vessel in order to force the South Koreans to release the money owed. But later the Iranians manged to pay off some of the debt to the UN with money released after keeping the merchant vessel hostage.
Political Hostages for Sale
There is a “for sale” sign up by the Tehran government for political hostages held illegally in Iran. It could have started with Anousheh Ashouri Nazanin and Zaghari-Ratcliffe, dual British/Iranian nationals, both had been arrested, detained and jailed on false accusations. In March 2022 the two UK political hostages were purchased back by the United Kingdom government for £400 million, a debt owed to the Shah of Iran before the theocratic government of Tehran took over. Saeed Khatibzadeh Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said there has been no link between Britain’s payback of its debt to the Islamic Republic and the freedom of two dual British-Iranian nationals.
Then there is the prisoner swap between Iran and Belgium. Belgium passed a prisoner exchange law in order to bring home a wrongfully arrested and charged Olivier Vandecasteele. He had been arrested because of Assadollah Assadi who was an Iranian serving as a diplomat in Austria and was caught out of bounds and involved in a proven terrorist charge against the NCRI in Paris.
In May 2023 France managed to exchange three prisoners with Iran without concessions.
Next, we have the August 2023 purchasing of US/Iranian political hostages by the United States. On the 10th August 2023 Arabic websites announced a deal had been struck between Iran and the United States Democratic Administration of Joe Biden. The deal was that Iran would ‘sell’ back five Iranian/American dual national hostages for the release of $7 billion from South Korea where it had been held since sanctions were imposed in 2018 along with the exchange of five Iranian prisoners. The funds would only be accessible for food and medicine and no sanctions relief. Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “The Islamic Republic will decide how to use the released funds, and these funds will be appropriated for the various needs of the country by the appropriate authorities.” It is up to "the Islamic Republic and competent Iranian authorities" to determine the manner of application of the unfrozen funds, the statement said. None of any money released to Iran finds its way to the Iranian population.
In 2015 the Democrat Obama administration in order to secure the nuclear agreement with Iran paid the Iranians $1.7 billion which secured the release of four American political hostages held in Iran. Obama also exchanged 14 Iranians for whom it was assessed that extradition requests were unlikely to be successful and freed another seven. But the real bargaining started in 1979 when the Democrat administration of Jimmy Carter bought back the 52 American hostages of 1979. A total of $9.5 billion was paid to Iran. The question is, is the taking of political prisoners by Iran a lucrative business? Certainly, the next question that has to be asked is, “who else is holding Iranian funds and will more political hostages be kidnapped and held to ransom?”
Who is winning the political hostage battle?
“The Islamic Republic has a long-running strategy of arresting those with ties abroad to be used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West, although Iran has always denied holding prisoners for this reason.”
(ITV News 15th June 2024)
Conclusion
The negotiation of Johan Floderus, and Saeed Azizi, for the release of Hamid Nouri are just another chapter in Iranian ‘hostage diplomacy’ aimed at gaining concessions for its own demands. Will this trend continue? Of course. It is a successful way of achieving what they want from governments who are weak and do not stand up to them. As long as they fail to do this, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to exploit this means of gaining a greater influence over their enemies. This style of using dual nationals or western citizens will be the future for Iran when taking political hostages. Iran now knows that certain countries can be bought when it comes to negotiating political prisoner negotiations and swapping for concessions. Those countries involved have now set a dangerous precedent in which future political hostage taking and negotiating has been set.
Paul Ashley
Further Information:
[1] Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK). https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mujahadeen-e-khalq-mek
[2] Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian.
[3] The Wilson Centre Digital Archive. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/topics/irans-tudeh-party