The Human Rights Committee of Sweden’s Scientific and Literary Academies is once again appealing to the Iranian authorities for help in ensuring that the death sentence of Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalali is not carried out and that he is released immediately.
Ahmadreza Djalali, a doctor and specialist in disaster medicine at Karolinska Institutet, was arrested in April 2016 during a visit to Iran to attend a series of conferences on disaster medicine. In 2017, he was sentenced to death for espionage in a trial that did not meet international standards of due process.
According to reliable reports, Dr. Djalali has been subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment during his lengthy incarceration that has included repeated threats of imminent execution, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, withholding of needed medical care, denial of access to family members in Iran and his lawyer, and that he has been permitted only rare telephone calls with his wife and children.
The long-standing concerns about Djalali’s case have recently been reinforced by reports that he was informed in December 2023 that his death sentence has been finalised and that his execution will be carried out shortly.
The letter:
Stockholm 20 March 2024
Your Excellency,
We, the Human Rights Committee of Sweden’s Scientific and Literary Academies, write respectfully to request your urgent assistance regarding the alarming situation of Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, an unjustly imprisoned Iranian-Swedish disaster medicine specialist and academic colleague of ours. Our longstanding concerns about Dr. Djalali’s case have been heightened by indications that he received a visit in prison on December 22, 2023 from an official in the Iranian judiciary who informed him that his death sentence has been finalized and his execution will be carried out soon.
Dr. Djalali who is a resident of Sweden, was arrested in April 2016 while visiting Iran, at the invitation of the University of Tehran and Shiraz University, to take part in a series of workshops about best practices in disaster medicine. In October 2017, following proceedings that failed to meet international due process standards, he was convicted of allegedly committing espionage for a hostile foreign government and sentenced to death by Iran’s Revolutionary Court. Reliable reports indicate that Dr. Djalali was coerced under extreme duress to make false confessions that we understand were used as evidence in his prosecution and conviction.
According to reliable reports, Dr. Djalali has been subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment during his lengthy incarceration that has included repeated threats of imminent execution, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, withholding of needed medical care, denial of access to family members in Iran and his lawyer, and that he has been permitted only rare telephone calls with his wife and children. In 2021, U.N. human rights experts publicly stated that Djalali’s “severe physical and psychological ill-treatment” in prison in Iran constitutes “torture.” Due in large part to his punishing treatment, Dr. Djalali suffers from a number of serious health problems for which we understand he has not received adequate medical treatment.
In light of this critical situation, we respectfully request your help in ensuring that Dr. Djalali’s death sentence is not carried out. We further plead that, in view of the due process irregularities in his case, his already lengthy imprisonment, and his dire ill-health, he be released from prison as a matter of urgency and allowed to return to his wife and children in Sweden.
We thank you in advance, Your Excellency, for your attention to this important matter.
Respectfully yours,
Dan Larhammar
Professor, Acting Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of Sweden’s Scientific and Literary Academies
The Human Rights Committee of Sweden’s Scientific and Literary Academies includes members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, the Swedish Academy and the Young Academy of Sweden.
