Member of the European Parliament Hannah Neumann led a petition addressed to EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell concerning the prolonged imprisonment of an EU citizen by the Islamic Republic.
In a message on X social network, MEP Neumann along with Cornelia Ernst, Bart Groothuis, and Dietmar Köster, expressed their concerns, stating, "We have some questions regarding the hostage-taking case of Johan Floderus."
“I have full knowledge that some of these individuals were terminated because they had moral issues and have been sued [by alleged victims] but they claim in the media that their termination was politically motivated,”Mohammad Moghimi, Chancellor of Tehran University, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Sunday.
The Ministry of Higher Education has not commented on the recent dismissals of dozens of professors. However, on August 28, the Interior Ministry released a statement denouncing criticism of the expulsions as "media propaganda" and defended the Higher Education Ministry’s "revolutionary action" against “a few professors who were academically sluggish”.
The Interior Ministry's statement also accused the sacked professors who had opposed the crackdown on students during anti-government protests, of "political immorality and media show-off," and of "defiling" the academic arena with their "factional and even anti-national views."
According to the reformist Etemad daily, 52 professors have been removed from their posts at several universities across Iran since President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration took office two years ago. Additionally, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) stated last week that at least twenty-four professors have been sacked since mid-July this year.
Etemad claimed, that these professors included those who were “banned from entering their university, banned from teaching, fired, or forced into retirement” under various pretexts including “lacking academic proficiency”.
Some of the professors who have recently been terminated have stated their political beliefs and actions, including signing statements in support of last year’s protests and protesting students, as the reason for their removal from their posts.
Moghimi accused these professors of lying and called their social media statements “extremely unethical”.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on many occasions stressed that universities must be Islamic and those who are not aligned with the regime should not be allowed to teach. “Do not employ unreliable individuals in universities at any cost,” he said in a speech in July 2015. “There are good professors, employ them,” he added.
Speaking to the reformist Jamaran news website Sunday, prominent reformist politician Mohsen Mirdamadi called the recent surge in the elimination of dissident professors “the second Cultural Revolution”.
Mirdamadi said those behind the purge in universities aim to “silence universities”. “But previous experience shows that this will not happen,” he said.
In 1980, soon after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the new government’s Cultural Revolutionary Headquarters shut down universities for three years to purge the academia of its challengers and to enforce its own Islamic revolutionary ideology (Islamification) in higher education establishments. During this period, thousands of professors and students were purged for various reasons, including political inclinations and western influences.
In a statement on August 27, the National Union of Iranian University Professors criticized the "profuse meddling" of security bodies in academic affairs and warned about the "gradual decline" of universities.
On August 27, the National Union of Iranian University Professors criticized the "profuse meddling" of security bodies in academic affairs and warned of the "gradual decline" of universities. Dr Mohsen Borhani, a professor of Islamic and criminal law at Tehran University who was dismissed a few months ago for criticizing the regime after the execution of four young protesters, suggested in an August 28 tweet that some professors' dismissals might be due to "illegal orders" by the National Security Council (NSC), headed by Ahmad Vahidi, the interior minister. "Universities and the country will be managed like military barracks when someone from the military becomes interior minister," Borhani remarked.
Mousavi, a former prime minister and Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest, living in seclusion under the control of security forces at their home since 2011. The situation arose when they and former Majles Speaker Mehdi Karroubi were put under house arrest for leading the protests the post-2009 presidential election protests, which followed the contested election and the subsequent re-election of populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's President.
The Telegram channel Kaleme reported Tuesday that medical examination results handed to Mousavi and his wife do not conform to the actual symptoms of their medical conditions.
The channel, which is close to Mousavi and his supporters, revealed that medical test results pass through several security layers before reaching the two detainees, and do not reflect the extreme changes in their conditions during the past few months.
Some Iranian analysts have charged that what has been revealed in this report might indicate that the government is gradually murdering the two.
The Telegram channel added that their health conditions have visibly deteriorated after Mousavi and Rahnavard issued a statement earlier this year and supported the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and called for a referendum to change the regime based on people's demands.
Meanwhile, unusual electronic signals are beamed constantly into their house to disrupt their communication with the outside world and these signals are likely to have affected their health, Kaleme said. Furthermore, their living situation remains highly restrictive, with security forces maintaining complete control, including holding all the keys to the property. Notably, Mousavi and Rahnavard are prohibited from accessing the rooftop water tank, which serves as their source of drinking water. The report even suggests that political allies of Mousavi fear that the water in the tank could have been tampered with or poisoned.
The Telegram channel also mentioned that the same concern also exists about food delivery to the house.
The report also highlighted that there has never been any acknowledgment of responsibility from any individual, security agency, or judicial body regarding the decision to place the Mousavi family under house arrest. This raises suspicions that the government may be using their health as a means to suppress their voices. Kaleme stressed the importance of holding the Iranian government accountable for any threats to the well-being of Mousavi and Rahnavard.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Iran International TV, Iranian political analyst Morteza Kazemian charged that the government's intervention and its total control over the medical examinations of Mousavi and Rahnavard could be interpreted as an attempt to gradually murder them under house arrest.
Another Iranian political analyst Jamshid Barzegar told Iran International TV that 6 Iranian inmates have lost their lives in Iranian prisons in recent months as security forces ignored their medical problems. Barzegar also called this a "gradual murder" and said that this has been a usual practice in Iranian prisons for a long time now. He said this report by Kalame should be taken seriously as the Islamic Republic might be attempting to terminally silence Mousavi his wife as vocal critics of the system.
Yet another analyst, Ali Hossein Ghazizadeh told Iran International that the information about the case reveals the government is most likely trying to kill Mousavi and Rahnavard by gradually poisoning them.
Vienna-based journalist Stephanie Liechtenstein cited diplomatic sources as saying that no resolution censuring Tehran’s nuclear program is planned for the meeting, slated to start on September 11.
The International Atomic Energy Agency did not adopt any resolution against Iran also in its previous meetings in March and June. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Iran in early March and announced new arrangements with Tehran to restore the monitoring of nuclear enrichment activities.
However, despite Grossi's claims of a deal to return to a closer monitoring process and resolve the issue of three sites found to have been contaminated by traces of uranium, no progress has been made since March. The only result of his trip was that the West refrained from censuring Iran at the following IAEA board meetings.
Liechtenstein noted that “Instead, E3 (France, Germany, and the UK) and US are drafting a joint statement that they will open up for co-signature from other countries.”
The joint statement is seen as a symbolic move against the backdrop of a reported secret deal between Tehran and Washington, announced as a prisoner swap agreement. Iran will release five Americans in exchange for its funds released from banks in South Korea and Iraq, blocked after the US withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
In reports to diplomats of countries forming the board of directors of the IAEA, the watchdog’s experts say that Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, close to weapons grade, continues to grow but it grew just seven percent in the last three months compared with a 30-percent increase in the previous quarter.
The report was not officially released by the IAEA and was only reported in parts by some agencies such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg. This was the excuse Vedant Patel, the Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, used to dodge questions about the report in his press briefing on Tuesday.
“I am not going to comment on an IAEA report that has not been made public yet,” he said, adding that “Iran’s production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent has no credible peaceful purpose.”
Mocking the ‘joint statement,’ deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Andrea Stricker said that “US policy has allowed Iran to accumulate 5, 20, 60% enriched uranium and maintain nuke breakout capability, not cooperate on IAEA probe or reinstall cameras, hide away advanced centrifuges, and get $10 billion and unhindered oil exports.” “Why bother with a joint statement?”
Johan Floderus, a 33-year-old member of the EU diplomatic corps, has been held covertly in Iran for over 500 days as part of Iran's hostage diplomacy, as reported by The New York Times. Floderus was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2022, during what was described as a private tourist trip with friends.
MEP Neumann said the issue raises concerns for the safety of other EU citizens. "Any European in Iranian captivity is one too many. However, with the arrest of Johan Floderus, the Iranian regime is escalating the situation further and worsening already strained relations. This incident is outrageous and requires prompt clarification," she said.
The letter directed to Josep Borrell seeks answers to critical questions, including how long the EU has been aware of the Swedish citizen's imprisonment in Iran, reasons behind the lack of public communication on this matter, and the measures undertaken by the EU to secure the release of Floderus.
Members of the European Parliament have pressed Josep Borrell for answers, urging him to respond to the inquiries urgently.
