Akademiernas kommitté för mänskliga rättigheter vädjar återigen till iranska myndigheter om hjälp för att säkerställa att den svensk-iranske läkaren Ahmadreza Djalalis dödstraff inte verkställs samt att han friges omgående.
Ahmadreza Djalali, läkare och forskare i katastrofmedicin vid Karolinska Institutet, greps i april 2016 under ett besök i Iran där han deltog i en serie konferenser om katastrofmedicin. 2017 dömdes han till döden för spioneri i en rättegång som inte uppfyllde internationella krav för rättssäkerhet.
Enligt tillförlitliga rapporter har Djalali utsatts för grym och omänsklig behandling under sin långa fängelsetid, inklusive upprepade hot om omedelbar avrättning, långa perioder av isolering, undanhållande av nödvändig medicinsk vård, nekad tillgång till familjemedlemmar i Iran och sin advokat samt att han endast har tillåtits sällsynta telefonsamtal med sin fru och sina barn.
Den mångåriga oron för Djalalis fall har nyligen förstärkts, då det framkommit att han i december 2023 informerats om att hans dödsdom slutgiltigt har fastställts, och att avrättningen kommer att verkställas inom kort.
Brevet i sin helhet:
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
Akademiernas kommitté för mänskliga rättigheter består av representanter från Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, Svenska Akademien och Sveriges unga akademi.
