Mehran Abbasian, a reporter for Iran International TV, has been moved to a secure location following threats to his life, after similar threats against the channel’s journalists in the UK beginning in 2022.
The Swedish police have classified the threats as "serious and real," underscoring the dangerous conditions faced by those critical of the Iranian government, at home and abroad.
It comes on the back of revelations last month of Iran recruiting Swedish gangs to carry out such plots abroad, including on Jewish and Israeli targets. Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, also confirmed the reports saying Swedish gangs were part of a Europe-wide plot from Tehran against Israeli embassies.
The threats against Iran International staff have become a recurrent issue, stemming back to 2022 when London's Metropolitan Police revealed plots against staff in London. Last year, the threats reached a climax with the UK's MI5 saying it could no longer protect the team, forcing a temporary relocation to the US.
Kazem Gharibabadi, head of the Iranian Judiciary's Human Rights Headquarters, recently branded the network as "terrorist" and directly threatened its staff. The statement followed shortly after condemnation from UN experts regarding the ongoing threats and acts of violence against Iran International's personnel, including a violent knife attack on presenter Pouria Zeraati.
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently acknowledged that Iran's terror plots across Europe and its involvement with criminal networks in Sweden are “deeply concerning.”
"It is deeply concerning that a foreign power, in this case, Iran, has allegedly used criminal networks to commit or instigate crimes in Sweden. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires to stress how seriously we are taking this information," the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Press Office told Iran International on Sunday.
