At Easter 2022, Johan Floderus traveled to Iran with friends to visit a mutual friend who lived and worked in the country. At that time there was no general travel advice to Iran, only to specific areas.
He felt no concern, despite the fact that in Sweden there was an extensive and highly publicized trial against an Iranian man accused of crimes against international law.
– I have never been worried about traveling to Iran and saw no risks in traveling there. Iran is known for being a safe country for tourists, says Johan Floderus to TV4 Nyheterna.
– I traveled to Iran with some good friends to see some of the major tourist attractions. That something of this nature would happen was completely unthinkable.
Arrested at the airport
Johan Floderus describes the trip as “wonderful”. Together with his friends, he traveled around to several ancient and historical cities; Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran.
– We had the most fun and socialized while going in and out of fantastic mosques and sitting in cooling courtyards with fountains and beautiful flowers. It was so much fun reuniting with friends I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic.
But when Johan Floderus was going home, everything changed. The friends stayed a few extra days, while he went to the airport alone. After he had checked in his luggage and stood at the security checkpoint, he heard a man shout “Mister!” behind him.
– I didn’t think it was about me, but when I turned around he looked me right in the eyes, he was looking for exactly my gaze and then he said: “come with me!”.
Johan Floderus was taken to an office.
– I didn’t feel any worry or fear at the time, but it was strange, it had never happened before. I remember picking up my phone to text my friends. Then they snatched the phone from my hand.
“Easy to be a hindsight”
Then plainclothes policemen came and forced him into a car. Johan Floderus protested, in vain. He was driven back to Tehran. Before the car turned off a highway, he saw a sign: “Evin Detention Center.” It was the start of 790 days in captivity.
A few days after the arrest, on April 28, 2022, the Swedish Foreign Ministry issued a warning against all non-essential travel to Iran. After the prisoner exchange with Hamid Noury, there has been criticism of the government because such a warning did not come earlier.
– It is easy to be a hindsight. I think that the travel advice has to do with the fact that I myself was arrested and it was then fixed. Many other foreign citizens, especially from the EU, have also been arrested, but most of them have been arrested while I was actually already in custody, says Johan Floderus.
Billström: “Very unfortunate”
After the prisoner exchange, Foreign Minister Tobias Billström and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson have reminded Swedes several times to follow which countries the Foreign Ministry advises against traveling to.
Tobias Billström believes that it was “very unfortunate” that there was no advice in place when Johan Floderus went to Iran, despite the trial against Hamid Noury in Sweden.
“The signals that an advisory should have been issued long before were clear and available,” he writes X.