Iran today released an Austrian man imprisoned in the country since 2022 on charges of committing crimes in the province of West Azerbaijan, the Iranian judicial agency Mizan reported today.
The president of the Supreme Court of West Azerbaijan, Nasser Atabati, said that Christian Weber had been released due to “Islamic clemency and benevolence”, although he did not explain the crimes of which he was accused.
He only said that Weber “was in prison for crimes committed in the province of West Azerbaijan”.
“After his release, this prisoner was handed over to the Austrian ambassador to leave” the country, added Agencia Mizan, linked to the judiciary in Iran, quoted by Spain's EFE.
In October 2022, Austria announced the arrest of an Austrian in Iran, specifying that he had been arrested for “a crime unrelated to the demonstrations” that were shaking the Persian country at the time.
The demonstrations were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested on September 16, 2022 for not wearing the Islamic headscarf correctly.
The protests subsided after a strong state crackdown that left 500 dead and at least 22,000 detained, according to EFE.
Iran has been accused of using dual nationals and foreign prisoners as a measure of pressure or to exchange prisoners with other states.
This practice is described by other countries and human rights organizations as “hostage diplomacy”.
In June, Iran and Sweden carried out a prisoner exchange that led to the release of Johan Floderus, a European Union official detained during a tourist visit in 2022 on charges of espionage and corruption.
Sweden then released Hamid Nouri, an Iranian citizen sentenced to life imprisonment by the Swedish courts for his role in the mass executions of Iranian political prisoners in 1988.
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