Iran threatens Sweden as ex-official sentenced to life
A Swedish-Iranian row is deepening after a Swedish court sentenced an ex-Iranian official to life in prison and Tehran accused Stockholm of harboring "terrorist groups."
A senior Iranian official said the Islamic Republic "will not sit idly by" in the face of a Swedish court's verdict last week against a former Iranian judiciary staff member accused of involvement in 1988 prison executions.
Deputy Judiciary Chief for International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi warned that Tehran "has several options on the table" to address both the life sentence for Hamid Noury and Sweden's "brash support for notorious terrorist groups."
A former judiciary official, Noury was sentenced last week following a 30-month trial in Stockholm. He was found guilty of murder and "serious crimes against international law." Noury denies the charges, claiming he was misidentified and that during the period in question he had not been serving in the prison concerned in the indictment.
Gharibabadi did not elaborate, but the Islamic Republic has previously accused European states of harboring members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalq as well Kurdish and Arab dissidents. "The clock is ticking for Sweden to rectify its behavior," he concluded.
