Swedish citizen Johan Floderus said he was in the seventh heaven after being released from an Iranian prison yesterday, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
He said this in a recording published today on the Swedish government website.
Sweden and Iran yesterday carried out a prisoner swap in which Sweden released a former Iranian official convicted of his role in the mass executions and torture of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. Iran released two Swedes.
"I'm in heaven, but emotionally I'm in seventh heaven. I've been waiting for this for almost 800 days,'' Floderus says in a recording of a phone call between him and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson during his flight to Sweden.
Floderus is an employee of the European Union and was arrested in Iran in 2022 and charged with espionage for Israel as well as "corruption of the land" – a crime punishable by death.
He said he dreamed about the day of his release countless times. "Only to wake up later on this damn concrete floor," Floderus added. "I am now beginning to realize that I have left Iranian airspace and am on my way home," he added.
In a radio interview earlier today, Christershon rejected criticism from the wife of Ahmadreza Jalali, who has dual Swedish and Iranian citizenship and is still in an Iranian prison after Tehran refused to include him in the swap.
"I deeply respect her frustration, but I really don't understand the criticism. The alternative would be to abandon the two Swedes, who could now go home," he told Swedish radio.