Iran and Sweden have agreed to a prisoner swap, mediator Oman said on Saturday.
Tehran announced that Iranian national Hamid Nouri, convicted of war crimes by Sweden over mass executions carried out in 1988, had been freed and would return to Iran.
On the same day, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced that Swedish citizen and EU diplomat Johan Floderus, as well as dual national Saeed Azizi, had been released "after being imprisoned without reason by Iran".
Oman's Foreign Ministry said the sultanate had brokered the agreement between the two countries, and that the prisoners had been transferred through its capital Muscat.
An official confirmed on Saturday that Nouri, 62, a former Iranian prison official, had been freed and would return to Iran soon.
"Hamid Nouri, who has been in illegal detention in Sweden since 2019, is free and will return to the country in a few hours," Kazem Gharibabadi, head of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
On December 19, a Swedish appeals court confirmed a life sentence for Nouri.
He was found guilty of "grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder" over his role in a purge, in which at least 5,000 prisoners were killed in Iran in 1988.
Following his conviction, Iran summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires to protest against the sentence.
On Saturday, Sweden's Prime Minister welcomed the return of Floderus and Azizi.
"The Swedish government has worked intensively for them to be released. Today, they will land on Swedish soil and be reunited with their families and loved ones. Welcome home!," he said on X.
In December, Floderus went on trial in Iran on charges of conspiring with Tehran's arch-enemy Israel.
Floderus, 33, had worked as an aide to the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, and in the European External Action Service.
He was arrested on April 17, 2022, at Tehran airport as he was returning from a trip with friends.
Mr Kristersson had demanded the immediate release of Floderus on December 11.
Azizi, 60, was arrested in November 2023 after returning from Sweden to Iran.
In March, a Tehran court upheld a five-year-sentence for Azizi on charges of assembly and collusion against national security.
He was held in Iran's notorious Evin prison. Azizi's lawyer had previously highlighted his deteriorating health condition and said he had prostate cancer.
The exchange takes place after the US and Iran agreed to a limited prisoner exchange last year.
In September last year, Tehran confirmed five Iranian citizens detained in the US would be released in exchange for five Americans held in Iran.
“Under a prisoner swap deal between the two countries, the five Iranian nationals who were held illegally for circumventing Washington’s anti-Iran sanctions will be released,” Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York said at the time.
The announcement by the Iranian mission came after the Biden administration issued a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of US sanctions.
Iran has been accused of imprisoning foreign or dual nationals and using them as bargaining chips in negotiations.
UAE squad
Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
