Swedish daily: Iranian cleric arrested, facing deportation

An Iranian cleric, an imam at an Islamic Center in suburban Stockholm, has been arrested for nearly two weeks and faces deportation from Sweden, Expressen reported Friday.

Almost two weeks ago, individuals in civilian clothing went to the home of cleric Mohsen Hakimollahi at midnight and took him away, a close associate told Expressen.

“He has been missing for more than ten days and we learned through various channels that he is in one of the Swedish Migration Board's detention centers and will soon be deported from the country,” added the source.

The Imam Ali Islamic Center, considered the largest Shiite institution in Northern Europe, has not issued a public statement on the matter.

Hakimollahi, aged 63, was transferred from Iran to Sweden to manage the Shiite center and had resided in the country for several years, developing connections with local political figures and religious organizations.

He was initially granted a temporary work permit in 2011, which was renewed three times prior to him obtaining permanent residency in 2017. However, that status has now been taken away.

"I can confirm that we are not conducting any preliminary criminal investigation connected to this individual," said Gabriel Wernstedt, spokesperson for Sweden’s Security Service (Säpo).

Wernstedt explained that Sweden's security police can apply special laws to counter security threats to the country. These laws allow authorities to detain non-citizens until their deportation. Such decisions are made based on various intelligence assessments.

In a separate development, the Swedish TV channel, TV4 Nyheterna, reported on Tuesday that Rouzbeh Parsi, of Iranian origin and the head of the Middle East program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), communicated with authorities in Tehran who actively sought to amplify official Iranian foreign policy talking points in Western policy circles. Parsi later rejected the accusation. However, his brother, Trita Parsi in the US is known as a supporter of Tehran's foreign policy positions.

The detention of the cleric occurs after years of strained relations between Iran and Sweden, after 2019 when Sweden apprehended and sentenced Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian prosecutor for his involvement in the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners in Iran.

After serving five years of a life sentence, Nouri was swapped for a Swedish diplomat and an Iranian-Swedish national held in Iran on what human rights organization said were fabricated charges.

Another Iranian-Swedish individual, Ahmadreza Jalali, is still in custody in Iran facing a death sentence.

Hakimollahi’s phone has been inaccessible since his detention, and Expressen's attempts to contact his family for a statement have been unsuccessful.