Iran Frees Detained Swedish Spies

[RedWine]

Sweden must halt deportations to Iran after hangings: gay rights group .

STOCKHOLM - A Swedish gay rights group called on the government to immediately halt all deportations of homosexuals to Iran, saying two young men were hanged there this week for committing a "homosexual act."


"There are clear examples that homosexuals are killed in Iran for their sexual orientation. I think the Swedish government is extremely cynical when it sends gays and lesbians back to Iran," Soeren Andersson, head of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL), told AFP.

The two men, one of whom was under 18 years of age, were hanged on Tuesday, officially for raping a 13-year-old boy at knife-point, but Andersson said it was possible that they had in fact only had sex with each other.

"It is not unusual that one uses such charges as an excuse (to execute homosexuals) in such reactionary states as Iran," he insisted.

Before their hanging in northeastern Iran, both convicts were also reportedly given 228 lashes each for drinking, disturbing the peace and theft.

Sweden's asylum policy makes it illegal for the government to deport any person "who due to her/his sex or homosexuality experiences a well-founded fear of persecution", but authorities have claimed that the death penalty for sodomy is no longer in force, allowing it to send gay asylum seekers back to Iran.

"They keep looking for excuses to send them back there, but it is dangerous for homosexuals in Iran," Andersson said.

Sweden, which is considered one of the world's most liberal countries when it comes to gay rights and gender equality, "has always wanted to be the voice of human rights in the world. The deportations of homosexuals to Iran is a stain on Sweden's reputation", he said.

The Swedish Migration Board told AFP on Friday that it does not keep statistics on the grounds rejected asylum seekers had used in their asylum applications.

"It's difficult to know how many cases there have been," agency spokeswoman Marie Andersson said.

RFSL asylum seeker attorney Stig Aake Petersson however claims that some 10 homosexuals and transsexuals have their asylum applications turned down each year.

"They are sent back or disappear somehow. One transsexual whose case was turned down committed suicide last year. I guess that was preferable to going back," he told AFP.

In 2004 at least 159 people were executed in Iran -- the highest rate in the world after China -- according to Amnesty International.

Iran's capital offences include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.

[RedWine]

Two Swedish construction workers have returned home after being released from a prison in Iran, where they had been convicted of espionage for photographing military installations.

The two say they were filming dolphins and did not realize they were in a security area.

They say they were well-treated in prison and not threatened in any way. Their 3 year sentences were set aside thanks to the repeated intervention of the vice chairman of the Swedish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

[RedWine]

Iran Monday pardoned two Swedish nationals jailed for photographing military installations last year and will release them later in the day, the foreign ministry said.

"Within the framework of the humanitarian efforts of Iran and following the requests of the families and repeated requests from Swedish politicians ... they have been pardoned and will be freed at 6.00 pm [1530 GMT]," Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

The two men, named as Stefan Johanssen and Jari Hjortmar, were arrested in March 2006 for taking pictures of military installations on Iran's southern island of Qeshm and sentenced to two years in prison.

Hosseini said that the men would be released in the presence of Urban Ahlin, deputy head of the Swedish parliament's foreign affairs committee, and a top Iranian foreign ministry official for the Europe region.

Their release comes less than two weeks after 15 British naval personnel held by Iran on accusations of illegally entering Iranian waters were suddenly pardoned and released.

Two other Europeans, German tourist Donald Klein and French boat skipper Stephane Lherbier, were also both freed earlier this year before completing 18-month sentences for violating Iran's territorial waters.

The Swedish pair was charged with taking pictures of military sites, naval facilities, and telecommunication posts on Qeshm and Iranian news agencies said at the time that they had been jailed for espionage.

Swedish press reports identified the two men as construction workers aged between 30 and 40 from western Sweden.

Their case was far less publicized than that of Klein and Lherbier let alone the 15 British sailors whose detention sparked a major diplomatic standoff between Tehran and London.

However, Hosseini emphasized that Ahlin had visited Iran three times in the past eight months to discuss the case of the pair and that during these trips he had met with the judiciary head Ayatollah Hashemi Mahmoud Shahroudi.

Iran's detention of the Europeans came amid an escalating standoff with Europe and the United States over its nuclear program, which the West suspects could be aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

However, Iran insists that its nuclear drive is solely aimed at generating energy.

[RedWine]

Two Swedish construction workers who had been convicted of espionage and imprisoned in Iran for taking photographs of military installations were released Monday after being pardoned, a Swedish lawmaker in Tehran said.
The men, Stefan Johansson and Jari Hjortmar, were handed over to Swedish diplomats and lawmakers at Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday night, lawmaker Urban Ahlin told The Associated Press by phone after leaving with the two.

“Everything went according to plans,” said Ahlin, the deputy chairman of the Swedish parliament's foreign affairs committee. “We are very happy and satisfied.”

Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad said last May that the two had been convicted of photographing military installations and sentenced to three years in prison apiece. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said earlier Monday that the sentence had been only two years.

Hosseini said Iran had decided to release the men early to conform with the government's “humanitarian policy,” IRNA reported.

By releasing the prisoners, Iran may be trying to defuse anger in Europe over its seizure last month of 15 British sailors off the Iraqi coast. Iran held the sailors for 13 days before releasing them under intense international pressure.

Swedish media have reported that the Swedes, both construction workers in their 30s, had taken pictures of military buildings and telecommunications equipment on Qeshm, an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz about 870 miles south of Tehran.

When their sentences were announced last year, the Swedes' Iranian lawyer Muhammed Hassan Azemati said they had taken the photographs, but “they have not done any action intentionally, and their actions have not been organized.”

Ahlin, who had campaigned for their release, said the men had traveled to Iran to demonstrate a new technique of casting cement floors.

Ann Johansson, Stefan's wife, credited Ahlin with securing the Swedes' release.

“He has been our mainstay during this time and the authorities down there asked that he be part of the negotiations,” she told Sweden's TV4.