Iran criticises Sweden

TEHRAN: Iran has formally criticised Sweden over its decision to grant nationality to an Iranian professor sentenced to death on spying charges, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Sweden granted citizenship last week to Ahmadreza Djalali, a Stockholm-based specialist in emergency medicine. He was arrested during a brief visit to Iran in April 2016 and found guilty in October of passing information about two Iranian nuclear scientists to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency that led to their assassinations.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said the decision to grant a convict citizenship was "very strange, unprincipled and questionable" and that the Swedish ambassador was summoned on Monday.

"Iran’s strong protest was conveyed to the Swedish ambassador with regards to the move by the Swedish government to grant nationality to a person who has confessed to spying for Mossad and the Zionist regime and participating in killing Iranian scientists," Ghasemi said in a statement on the ministry website.