An Iranian-Swedish specialist in emergency medicine, Ahmadreza Djalali, was transferred to solitary confinement in Evin prison yesterday, November 24, where he will await the implementation of his death sentence.
According to Amnesty International, Ahmadreza Djalali’s sentence will be carried out a week from November 24.
The news of his imminent execution was initially reported by his wife Vida Mehran Nia, who lives in Sweden.
The transfer of Djalali to solitary confinement coincided with the release of new details about the case of the Iranian regime’s diplomat, Asssadollah Assadi. Assadi and three others are going to be tried for planning a terrorist attack on a gathering of the PMOI, an Iranian opposition group, held in Paris in 2018. The plan was foiled with police intervention. The last session of Assadi’s trial will be held in two days.
There have been speculations about the regime’s attempt to exchange Assadollah Assadi with Ahmadreza Djalali.
Sweden’s Foreign Minister on Tuesday condemned Djalali’s imminent execution.
“In light of reports that Iran may have planned to enforce a death penalty against the Swedish citizen Djalali, I have today spoken with Iran’s foreign minister (Mohammad Javad) Zarif,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Twitter.
“Sweden condemns the death penalty and works to ensure that the verdict against Djalali is not enforced.”
In response, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said “Unfortunately, the Swedish authorities’ information on the situation of Mr. Ahmadreza Djalali, who is in prison due to security crimes, is incomplete and incorrect.”
“As Dr. Zarif … explained to Ms. Linde, Iran’s judiciary is independent and any meddling in the issuance or execution of judicial rulings is unacceptable,” he added.
Background
Djalali was formally invited to the University of Tehran on April 24, 2016, where he was detained by Intelligence Agents for alleged “espionage and cooperation with an enemy country” and sentenced to death.
Ahmadreza Djalali was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” in October 2017 in an unfair trial before the 15th Branch of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. His sentence was based on “confessions” taken from Djallili under torture. He was threatened to death and told that his children in Sweden and his mother in Iran would be killed or harmed.
According to Amnesty, in an August 2017 letter written from Evin prison, Ahmadreza Djalali said he was held solely because of his refusal to use his academic ties in European institutions to spy for Iran.
The state-run TV IRIB aired Djalali’s “confessions” on December 17 along with a voiceover presenting him as a “spy”. His lawyers learned on December 9, 2018, that Djalali’s death sentence was upheld despite denying the lawyers an opportunity to file their defense submissions on his behalf.
