It’s been more than 5 years since Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalali was tortured by Iranian authorities, and forced to ‘confess’ to being a ‘spy’. Today, he faces imminent execution.
In November 2020, Ahmadreza’s execution was scheduled to go ahead within the week of its announcement. After global public pressure, it was cancelled by authorities following orders from ‘higher up’.
However in recent months, the Iranian government has linked the execution of Ahmadreza Djalali to the trial of Hamid Nouri – a former Iranian official, who was recently sentenced to life in prison in Sweden over crimes relating to Iran’s 1988 prison massacres.
Shortly before Hamid’s trial ended in May of this year, several Iranian media outlets published that Ahmadreza’s death sentence will be carried out “at the very latest, by the end of Ordibehesht” (21 May 2022.) Those same articles also stated that in carrying out the execution of Ahmadreza, the Iranian government will “bar the government of Sweden from undertaking further actions similar to the detention of Hamid Nouri.”
Ahmadreza Djalali and Hamid Nouri are not known to each other. Now, it appears that the Iranian authorities are threatening to speed up Ahmadreza’s execution — as a weaponized retaliation to the Swedish government’s sentencing of Hamid Nouri.
Ahmadreza’s wife Vida told Amnesty that Iranian judicial officials have said that Sweden has joined forces with Iran’s “enemies” after prosecuting Hamid Nouri — leaving them with “no option” but to carry out Ahmadreza’s execution.
Ahmadreza should have never been imprisoned in the first place. Now, his life hangs in the balance as a political pawn, while his children continue to grow up without their father.
Ahmadreza’s wife Vida is calling for compassionate people like you to speak out.
“Ahmadreza has always been devoted to helping others; now he is wasting away in prison for nothing. I ask Amnesty International activists around the world to help bring my husband back to his wife and children, and to the academic world.”