The family of a Swedish EU diplomat imprisoned in Iran for more than 663 days fear he will be given a death sentence or life imprisonment within the coming days after prosecutors sought the maximum sentence in his case.
“I ask how can this be happening? He is my brother and I’m like: they want to kill my younger brother? That is very hard to take in. I also feel so sad for him being there alone, you know, when I see the pictures of him I just want to be there for him,” said Johan Floderus’s sister, Ingrid.
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In December, Johan Floderus was charged with “very extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist occupation regime” and “corruption on Earth”.
Ingrid’s view that Sweden needs to change tack is supported by the experiences of two former prisoners who attended the campaign event in Brussels, the Irish travel consultant Bernard Phelan and the Belgian humanitarian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele.
Floderus’s family worry about his physical and mental health after almost two years in a cell lit up 24/7, with blankets on the floor as bedding, and after going on hunger strike at least seven times to get calls home.
Ingrid said it was “not very Swedish” to protest and demonstrate, but the two former prisoners said visible support back home helped keep them “mentally sane” in a situation in which “you are isolated, you cannot exercise, everything is taken away from you”.
“We will not give up on them until Johan Floderus has been released and returned home,” the spokesperson said, adding it would “complicate the handling” of the case were it to “publicly discuss its actions”.
Borrell’s spokesperson said: “The high representative persistently raises the case at every occasion and contact with the Iranian authorities, since his detention, requesting his liberation.
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