Iran executes Swedish citizen

The executed man was arrested in June 2025.

A Swedish citizen was executed in Iran on Wednesday, according to a statement released by Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard.

“It is with dismay that I have received information that a Swedish citizen has been executed in Iran earlier today,” Stenergard wrote, adding “the responsibility for this rests solely with Iran.”

The executed man, who has not been named, was arrested in June 2025 according to the Foreign Ministry.

In her statement, Stenergard said that Sweden has repeatedly raised the issue with Iranian representatives, stressing the expectation of a fair trial and due legal proceedings.

“It is clear to us that the legal process that led to the Swedish citizen being executed has not been fair,” Stenergard wrote.

“The death penalty is an inhumane, cruel and irreversible punishment. Sweden, together with the rest of ‌the ⁠EU, condemns its application in all circumstances” she added “Sweden will continue to condemn serious human rights violations in Iran.”

The execution takes place during the third week of the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, where the regime has a long record of human rights violations, most recently underscored by a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests.

Iran also has a history of detaining Western nationals, including Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish academic who has also been imprisoned in Iran since 2016 and has been sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel; and Johan Floderus, an EU official who was released as part of a deal with Tehran in 2024.

In comments to Swedish media, Stenergard said she had been made aware that the execution was imminent late Tuesday and had tried to make contact with her Iranian counterpart, to no avail.

Stenergard has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Stockholm.

Source: politico.eu, Sonja Runen, March 18, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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