'In seventh heaven,' says Swede freed in Iran prisoner swap 

FILE - Johan Floderus, after being imprisoned in Iran, is greeted by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at Arlanda Airport, in Stockholm, June 15, 2024. (TT News Agency/Tom Samuelsson / Regeringkansliet via Reuters) FILE - In this photo released by Mizan News Agency on Dec. 10, 2023, Swedish citizen Johan Floderus, center, sits at a courtroom at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Iran.

A Swede freed in a prisoner swap with Iran, 33-year-old EU diplomat Johan Floderus, said in his first words since his release that he was "in seventh heaven", in a video published Sunday. In the video obtained by AFP from the Swedish government, Floderus can be heard speaking to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson by satellite phone while on a flight home from Iran on Saturday. "I'm in the sky and I feel emotionally like I'm in seventh heaven. I've been waiting for this for almost 800 days," an audibly exhilarated Floderus told a smiling Kristersson. "I've dreamt of this day so many times," he said, adding: "It's beginning to sink in that I've left Iran's airspace and am on my way home." Floderus could later be seen hugging his family members at Stockholm's Arlanda airport after he landed, in images released by the Swedish government. Floderus was arrested in Iran as he was about to return home from a holiday in April 2022. He was accused of espionage, for which he risked a death sentence.