Iranian agents linked to terrorist plot in Sweden against dissidents

The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) recently confirmed, according to a report in the online news publication IranWire, that the two people might have travelled to Europe as a terrorism sleeper cell.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
The Swedish flag is seen at Gamla Stan, the Old City of Stockholm, Sweden, May 7, 2017. (photo credit: INTS KALNINS / REUTERS)
The Swedish flag is seen at Gamla Stan, the Old City of Stockholm, Sweden, May 7, 2017.
(photo credit: INTS KALNINS / REUTERS)
Two refugees who entered Sweden in 2015 with claimed Afghani identities are believed to be agents for the Islamic Republic of Iran who sought to execute a terrorist plot against Iranian dissidents opposed to the theocracy in Tehran.
Bulletin, a Swedish online newspaper, reported last week Sweden’s security police arrested Salma K. and Fouad M. in April for planning an act of terrorism within the territory of Sweden, and it has turned out that they are not Afghani nationals.
Sweden’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor Hans Ihrman of the National Security Unit said the two suspects’ identities are fabricated. Ihrman said their ages are ten years older than they initially claimed and their names not authentic.
The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) recently confirmed, according to a report in the online news publication IranWire, that the two people might have travelled to Europe as a terrorism “sleeper cell."
IranWire journalist Kambiz Ghafouri  reported on Monday that "A well-positioned Swedish source told me all the evidence points to their connection to the security agencies of the Islamic Republic. For now at least, it is strongly suspected that their real nationality is Iranian."
IranWire added that the pair “spoke with Iranian accents. They asked for an Iranian interpreter because, they said, having lived for many years in Iran they could no longer understand certain words in Dari: the Afghani strain of Persian.”
According to an interpreter, Fouad said:  “My name is Fouad M... I entered Sweden on October 28, 2015. I was born in the Afghan province of Kapisa, but I lived in Iran.”
He is believed to be 34-years-old, and not 24-years-old, as he claimed when he arrived in Sweden.
Though the pair did not have any identity papers, the Swedish Migration Agency awarded the man and woman political asylum.
According to the Swedish paper Expressen, neighbors said the couple covered their windows to block any view of the inside of their home.  The intense secrecy of their house might be an effort on their part to cover up the construction of explosives, according to one terrorism expert cited in Bulletin.
IranWire reported the “The targets of the alleged plot were Iranians living in Sweden who opposed the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose names have not been made public. According to the authorities, the pair began planning to carry out an attack in January 2021.”
The formal charges against the Fouad and Salma are “conspiracy to commit a criminal terrorist act" and fabricating their identities.
Sweden’s Security Service said Iran's regime conducts intelligence operations in Sweden.
Bulletin reported that an attorney for Fouad said his client denies the charges, and Salma's attorney declined to comment.
In 1993, Sweden expelled Iranian regime diplomats for spying on Iranian dissidents in the northern European country. A second IranWire report by Hannah Somerville last week documented the Islamic Republic of Iran's "attacks on Iranians in Sweden that have been exposed in the past 12 months. The multi-pronged threat the regime now poses to the 100,000 Iranians in Sweden – and indeed, to this Scandinavian country at large – has become so severe it was explicitly highlighted in the recently-published Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) Yearbook for 2020."
The Jerusalem Post reported in April that Sweden’s Security Service disclosed in its 2020 intelligence report that the Islamic Republic of Iran seeks Swedish technology for its nuclear weapons program.
A damning section of the Swedish intelligence document states that “Iran also conducts industrial espionage, which is mainly targeted against Swedish hi-tech industry and Swedish products, which can be used in nuclear weapons programs. Iran is investing heavy resources in this area and some of the resources are used in Sweden.”


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