(Adnkronos) – The Swedish government has summoned the Iranian ambassador to Stockholm following news that a compatriot has been sentenced to death in the Islamic Republic. This was announced by the Scandinavian country’s Foreign Minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, after Tehran’s judiciary announced on Tuesday that a man with dual citizenship – Iranian and Swedish – arrested during the 12-day war with Israel was on trial for espionage.
Stenergard told AFP that the Swedish Foreign Ministry had received reports that the man “had been sentenced to death at first instance, but we have not been able to confirm it. Of course, we are trying to do so” and “we have summoned the Iranian ambassador to clearly condemn the death penalty”.
The minister then highlighted that Sweden’s and the EU’s position on capital punishment is very clear. “We always oppose it, everywhere and regardless of the circumstances, and this is well known,” she explained. Tehran has released little information on the case, one of several arrests made during and after the brief war in which Israel and then the United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Some of those convicted of working for the Mossad were subsequently executed.
