TEHRAN — Iran’s intelligence ministry issued a statement on Saturday announcing that it has detained a Swedish national on accounts of espionage.

The ministry identified and arrested the citizen of “the Kingdom of Sweden on charges of espionage,” the statement said.

“The accused Swedish, who was on the list of suspects of the counter-espionage unit of the ministry of intelligence during his previous multiple trips to Iran due to some suspicious behavior and communications, has always been under constant supervision by the ministry officials from the moment of entering the country. All his movements, communications, trips to different cities of the country (which was generally carried out outside the tourist destinations and procedures) was under the exact supervision of the elite counter-intelligence agents of this ministry until leaving the borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement read. 

The statement went on to say that the findings of the ministry's counter-intelligence structure were that the accused, in all his previous trips, in compliance with the professional principles of communication, protection and concealment had communicated with a number of suspected European and non-European agents who were under surveillance in Iran.

The ministry said the suspect in question returned to the country a few months ago after the arrest of another European spy, with the mission of obtaining intelligence on how to reveal the identity of that spy and the type and amount of information that had fallen into the intelligence web of the ministry. 

“During the entire duration of the last mission, his contacts with the mentioned related parties were under continuous control of the intelligence officials and finally with the completion of the documents, he was arrested by a judicial order while he was leaving the country,” it stated. 

According to the ministry, the accused had a history of traveling to the occupied territories prior to leaving for Iran.

“As the intelligence ministry has announced repeatedly, it considers the security of the country and the comfort of the people as its red line, and it responds decisively to the smallest violation of the country's security borders, regardless of the noise made by professional singers and Western-Zionist chorus, especially to the infamous Swedish regime, which has supported several proxy spies for the occupying regime of Jerusalem (such as Ahmadreza Jalali, a definite spy of the Zionist regime and a definite criminal in the identification and assassination of some of the country's nuclear scientists) and safe haven for criminal terrorists such as the MKO and murderers of people and innocent children in the bloody parade of Ahvaz. The ministry warns that if the proxy spying procedure and the support of murderers by the intelligence agency of Sweden continues, it will receive an appropriate response.”