Since returning home just over two weeks ago, Johan Floderus has been enjoying what he describes as “the truly small things” in life – kayaking, eating good food, and sleeping in a bed.
“I can walk more than three or four steps without my nose hitting a concrete wall. I can feel the sun on my skin and the wind in my hair. Now I am free and can be with my family and my wonderful fiancé,” he says.
Floderus was arrested on his way home from a trip to Iran in April 2022 at Tehran airport and taken to the notorious Evin Prison. A few days later, when he was supposed to meet a judge, he initially felt relieved, but after being declared a suspect of espionage against the Islamic Republic, his feelings quickly changed.
“It must have been visible on me because the judge said, ‘Don’t worry, you will only be our guest here for two to three days.'”
For eight months, Floderus was isolated from the world in various solitary cells with the lights on around the clock. On several occasions, he chose to go on a hunger strike to get a chance to call home.
It wasn’t until the evening before the exchange that he found out he and Saeed Azizi would be going home in exchange for Hamid Noury.
“Sometime around midnight, a guard came to my cell and said I should shave off my beard. I am an optimist and could only think that something good was about to happen,” says Johan Floderus.
SpotlightSweden