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Iran arrests Swedish citizen, charged with spying for Israel

A number of Europeans were detained in Iran in recent months, including a Swedish tourist, two French citizens, a Polish scientist and others.

By Associated Press

Iranian agents have arrested a Swedish citizen suspected of spying, the intelligence ministry said Saturday.

The statement said the suspect was in touch with several other figures in Iran, and has visited Israel, Iran’s foe. The statement accused Sweden of proxy spying for Israel. There was no immediate response from Sweden.

This is the second Swedish citizen Iran arrested in recent months. In May, Sweden confirmed that Iran arrested a Swedish citizen at a tense time for ties between Stockholm and Tehran.

Earlier in July, Iran recalled its ambassador from Sweden after a Swedish court sentenced Iranian citizen Hamid Noury to life in prison for committing war crimes and murder during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Noury, 61, was arrested in November 2019 when he arrived in Stockholm on a tourist trip.

A number of Europeans were detained in Iran in recent months, including a Swedish tourist, two French citizens, a Polish scientist and others.

The detentions aroused concerns that Iran hoped to leverage the prisoners as bargaining chips to pressure the United States and European nations to grant the sanctions relief it received under its tattered 2015 nuclear accord.