An Iranian citizen has been jailed in Sweden on suspicion of carrying out crimes against humanity and murder in the late 1980s in Iran, a Swedish prosecutor said Wednesday, the same time period of mass executions by Tehran.
The Associated Press quoted Prosecutor Karolina Wieslander as saying that the unidentified man is suspected of committing the crimes between July 28, 1988, and Aug. 31, 1988, in Tehran.
His lawyer Lars Hultgren told the Swedish news agency TT that the man insists he is innocent, adding “they have taken the wrong guy.”
TT said the 58-year-old man was arrested Saturday at Stockholm’s international airport. The news agency said authorities suspect the man worked in a prison where many prisoners were hanged.
The man’s alleged crimes correspond with the end of Iran’s long war with Iraq. International rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed, including members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
