The Swedish citizen Koroush Kivani has been executed in Iran. This is reported by the Iranian state media channel Mizan on social media.

Kivani came to Sweden from Iran in the summer of 2014 and was granted a two-year temporary residence permit by the Swedish Migration Agency in the autumn of the following year. In November 2017, he received permanent residency, and less than a year and a half later, in February 2019, he also obtained Swedish citizenship.

According to the Swedish Tax Agency, Koroush Kivani is still officially registered as living in Sweden, but at some unknown point, he is believed to have returned to his homeland. According to some sources, he returned to Iran even before receiving his Swedish citizenship.

Executed on Wednesday

In June last year, in connection with the so-called twelve-day war, Koroush Kivani was arrested – accused of being an Israeli Mossad agent. He was alleged to have assisted the Israeli military by mapping targets in Iran.

On Wednesday, Kivani was executed by hanging after being sentenced to death for espionage. The Iranian government has published video clips in which Koroush Kivani confesses to acting on behalf of the “Zionist regime” – confessions suspected to have been forced out under torture.

The execution is condemned by the Swedish government.

“It is obvious to us that the legal process leading up to the execution of the Swedish citizen was not legally sound. The responsibility for this rests solely with Iran. Sweden will continue to condemn serious violations of human rights in Iran,” reads a statement from Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M).

Opposition leader Magdalena Andersson (S) also criticizes the execution of the Swedish citizen. “The death penalty is inhumane and irreversible. The legal process was not conducted in a legally secure manner,” she wrote on the social media platform X.