EU diplomat: Discovered inner strength in Iranian detention
Two years and two months, Johan Floderus has spent in the notorious Evin Prison in Iran. In June, the Swede is finally released through a prisoner exchange. Now Floderus talks about the hard time and what helped him endure.
He has spent nearly 800 days in the infamous Evin Prison in Iran, eight months of which in solitary confinement. In mid-June, Swedish national Johan Floderus was released from custody and could return home. He spoke of a "force" that helped him, which was more reliable than the "hope that one cannot control," he said in an interview. The 33-year-old EU diplomat smiles calmly and chooses his words carefully when asked about his condition. "I'm doing well," he says. "My family did everything to give me a soft landing upon my return."
Floderus and another Swede, Saeed Azizi, were released on June 15 in exchange for the 63-year-old Hamid Noury - a former high-ranking prison official from Iran, who served a life sentence in Sweden. Floderus was arrested more than two years ago, on April 17, 2022, at Teheran Airport, as he was returning from a vacation. "I was just writing to my friends that I had arrived at the airport, but something was going on," Floderus recalls. "Someone took my phone away and told me that wasn't allowed." He was driven to the northern part of the Iranian capital in a car, where he recognized the Evin Prison. "I took off my clothes, put on a prison uniform, and signed some papers," he reports. With his eyes covered, he was led through the corridors of the massive prison. "I could only see my feet on the ground," he says.
After two or three days alone in the cell, he was brought before "what they call a judge," Floderus says. "I was relieved because I thought the mistake would finally be clarified," he says. "Instead, this man told me that I was charged with espionage against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in that moment, everything went black," he recalls. The judge had told him not to worry, he would be "a guest for two or three days." "I finally spent two years and two months there," he says. The first two months, he spent "full of confusion, fear, and despair" in solitary confinement and was later transferred to a communal cell, he reports. "I could speak freely with the other inmates," he says. "When I told them what had happened to me and who I was, they said: 'Johan, you are a hostage.'"
After a month with other inmates, the Swede was put back in solitary confinement, where he spent six months. "During these months in solitary confinement, I realized that I couldn't survive if I let myself be influenced by bad news or the lack of news," says Floderus. "I tried to live for something else than hope," he adds. "I discovered a constant strength in myself, which I could rely on and which didn't abandon me even in the worst times." In December 2023, Floderus appeared in court in Sweden and was accused of "corruption on earth," one of the most serious charges in Iran, for which the death penalty applies. In the same month, the life sentence of the Iranian Hamid Noury for his role in the 1988 mass executions of prisoners ordered by Teheran was confirmed by a Swedish appeals court.
"I knew very early on that I would only see my family and loved ones again through a prisoner exchange," says Floderus. "Sweden is not the first country to make such a decision." He really believed in his release, however, only when he was taken to Teheran airport. When he stepped out of the plane in Stockholm, he knelt before his friend and proposed to him in front of the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. "I want to go back to the life my fiancé and I had before," says Floderus. "Two years and two months were stolen from us and now we want to get them back."
Floderus was released from Evin Prison in Stockholm, returning to his home in Sweden, following an international prisoner exchange with Iran. During his incarceration, he found strength in a force beyond his control, helping him endure the harsh conditions.
