Published 2024-07-01 17.08
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full screen Johan Floderus on his return home. Photo: Tom Samuelsson / Government Offices / Government Offices
After 790 days in Iranian prison, EU diplomat Johan Floderus was released.
Now he talks for the first time regarding his time in captivity.
– In my dreams, I am still in Evin Prison, he says to Kalla fakta’s Sara Recabarren.
Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus, 33, was on holiday in Iran when he was arrested on charges of espionage.
Only following 790 days in captivity was he released in a prisoner exchange between Sweden and Iran.
– Now I am free and can be with my family and my wonderful fiancé, he says to reporter Sara Recabarren in TV4’s Kalla fakta.
Solitary cell for 235 days
Johan Floderus says that he was arrested at the airport in Tehran in April 2022. He was then taken back towards the capital by plainclothes police.
During the journey, he saw a sign that read “Evin house of detention”. He was then taken to the infamous Evin Prison.
He describes his time in prison as torture.
On several occasions he went on hunger strike to be in contact with his family back home in Sweden. For 235 days he was put in solitary confinement.
The rest of the time he lived on the floor in a shared cell.
– They got some blankets. You put two under you, one over you, and then you rolled up the last one and used it as a pillow, says Johan Floderus to the channel.
“Then I wake up in the middle of the night”
On June 15 this year, Johan Floderus landed on Swedish soil once more. This following he and Saaed Azizi were released in the prisoner exchange between Sweden and Iran.
They were released in exchange for Hamid Noury, who was sentenced to life in a Swedish prison for participating in mass executions in the Iranian prison Gohardasht in 1988.
Since Johan Floderus came home, he has spent time with his family, eaten good food, slept in a bed and kayaked.
He says that he dedicated himself to “the real little things” in life. But at night he is reminded of his time in captivity.
– There is a team in my dream world, and in my dreams I am still in Evin Prison. Then I wake up in the middle of the night and it takes a second or two before I understand that I am in Orust.
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full screen Johan Floderus hugs his fiance upon his return to Sweden. Photo: Tom Samuelsson / Government Offices / Government Offices
