Iran accuses the doctor Ahmed Reza Jalali of spying for Israel. Critics see the death sentence as an act of retaliation against Sweden. A former Iranian prosecutor is on trial there for murder and war crimes.
Ahmed Reza Jalali during a visit to Barcelona in 2014.
Despite international protests, an Iranian court has confirmed the death sentence against Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmed Reza Jalali. “The judgment is final. It will be carried out, »said justice spokesman Zabihollah Khodaian earlier in the week. At the same time, the secret service announced that it had arrested two European citizens who wanted to foment “chaos, instability and social disorder”. The French Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that they were French and called for their immediate release.
A few days earlier, Iran had arrested a Swedish tourist just as he was about to leave the country. Critics see this as a pattern for Iranian “hostage diplomacy”. The Iranians have repeatedly arrested foreigners in recent years and accused them of espionage or other serious crimes. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch accuse the regime of trying to extort concessions from the countries of origin.
Threats against women and children
The indictment accuses the doctor Ahmed Reza Jalali of spying for Israel. Jalali has lived with his family in Stockholm since 2009, where he taught at the Karolinska Institute. In the spring of 2016 he traveled to Tehran at the invitation of a university. However, the secret service arrested him and put him in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. A year later, a revolutionary court sentenced him to death.
The judiciary accused him of providing the Israeli secret service with information that led to the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists. Jalali always denied the allegations, saying he was forced into a confession under torture. The torturers threatened to kill his children, who live with his wife in Sweden. They also demanded that he use his connections abroad to spy for Iran.
On Tuesday, the judiciary upheld the death sentence. The decision came as a historic trial against an Iranian regime official in Sweden nears its conclusion.
Executions without trial
In November 2019, the Swedish police arrested former public prosecutor Hamid Nuri upon entering the country. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a Stockholm court indicted Nuri two years ago for war crimes and murder. The 61-year-old is accused of being involved in the execution of thousands of opposition figures in the late 1980s.
Shortly before the end of the Iran-Iraq war in the summer of 1988, the Iranian People’s Mujahedin (Mujahedin-e Khalq) launched a final offensive from their bases in Iraq. Iran quickly repulsed the attack, but over the following weeks the regime executed thousands of suspected members or sympathizers of the opposition group and other opposition figures in prisons. According to Amnesty International, up to 5,000 prisoners fell victim to the massacres.
Iran has always tried this dark chapter, which also includes the prosecutor then and today President Ebrahim Raisi played a leading role in sweeping it under the carpet. In front of the court, however, survivors of the massacre testified how Nuri imposed death sentences in a series and personally led the sentenced to the place of execution. The verdict is expected in mid-July.
Iran denies hostage-taking
According to media reports, Iran wants to swap Nuri for Jalali with Sweden. The justice spokesman Khodaian denied this. Human rights activists, however, assume a clear connection. By announcing the execution of Jalali, the judiciary made it clear that he was a hostage, said Hadi Ghaemi, director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. “They use his life to influence the legal decision in Sweden.”
In addition to Sweden, Belgium, where Jalali has also taught, is also trying to prevent the execution. In addition, human rights organizations and scientists from all over the world strong for the release of the medic.