Published 6 February 2024 at 07.07
Domestic. A pair of agents from Iran's military intelligence service are said to have mapped three Jewish targets in Sweden in 2021, according to Ekot. However, the evidence was not enough for prosecution.
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The Iranian couple – Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid – were granted asylum in Sweden in 2017 as Afghans.
This despite the fact that they submitted false ID documents and the Migration Agency was alerted that the man was in fact an Iranian who worked for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Migration Agency's language analysis also raised questions about their alleged Afghan origin.
The duo was arrested in April 2021 in the Stockholm area on suspicion of being labeled a terrorist crime. They were suspected of having been commissioned by Iran to plan assassination attempts in Sweden.
The three intended targets were all Swedish Jews, about whom the couple gathered information. One of them was Aron Verständig, chairman of the Jewish Central Council, according to Ekot.
– Very unpleasant, says Aron Verständig to Ekot.
The couple were detained on probable cause and denied any crime, but nothing charges were brought.
– There was a survey. There were contacts with Iran. Then exactly how it was to be carried out against the targets, it was where we failed to get this necessary evidence that had been a prerequisite to being able to bring charges, says prosecutor Hans Ihrman to Ekot.
Instead of charges, the couple was deported to Iran in 2022 because they were considered a serious security threat to Sweden.
Ekot has unsuccessfully sought the Iranian embassy and the suspect couple for a comment.