A Swedish-Iranian national sentenced to death in Iran on charges of spying for Israel is to be executed this month, Iran’s ISNA news agency said on Wednesday, as the trial of a former Iranian official suspected of war crimes ended in Sweden.
Ahmadreza Djalali, a disaster medicine doctor and researcher, was arrested in 2016 on an academic visit to Iran and is to be executed by May 21, the semi-official ISNA said, citing sources.
Iran’s judiciary has yet to comment on the report. The Swedish foreign ministry did not immediately comment, but Sweden has in the past condemned Djalali’s death sentence.
The announcement came shortly before the trial of Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prosecution official arrested by Swedish authorities in 2019, ended in Stockholm. A verdict has yet to be announced.
If found guilty, Noury faces a maximum life sentence on charges of international war crimes and human rights abuses
Noury is accused of playing a leading role in the killing of political prisoners executed on government orders at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988. Amnesty International has put the number executed at some 5,000, saying in a 2018 report that “the real number could be higher”.
Under Swedish law, courts can try Swedish citizens and other nationals for crimes against international law committed abroad.
On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the Swedish envoy to protest “the baseless and fabricated accusations that the Swedish prosecutor made against Iran during Noury’s court case”, Iranian media reported earlier.
Last year, the UN investigator on human rights in Iran called for an independent inquiry into allegations of the 1988 state-ordered executions and the role played by President Ebrahim Raisi as then Tehran deputy prosecutor.
Raisi, when asked about the allegations, told reporters after his election in June that he had defended national security and human rights.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges. Rights activists have accused Iran of using them as bargaining chips. Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage.
However, Iran has exchanged several jailed foreigners and dual nationals with Iranians detained abroad.
In a resolution supported by 614 votes, the European Parliament condemned Iran for violating human rights.
The European Union demanded Iran’s release of European citizens of Iranian origin.
The EU also called for the necessity of stopping the death penalty execution against the Swedish-Iranian academic, Ahmed Reza Jalali.
The countries of the Union also condemned the deterioration of human rights in Iran, stressing that the matter has become a source of severe European concern.
The European Union called on Iran to stop carrying out executions and hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations. A member of the European Commission, Helena Daly, said that the Union calls on Iran on every occasion to respect its obligations under international treaties related to the political and civil rights of citizens.
“Nasrin Sotoudeh was re-arrested two weeks after her release. She suffers from difficult health conditions. We demand once again for her release and for her to be able to return to her family,” she said.
"The European Union is closely following the development of the human rights situation in Iran, which has been deteriorating regularly over the past year. Iran’s execution of Iranian dissident Ruhollah Zam is a very frightening act. The European Union condemns this act in the strongest terms and reiterates its strong initial opposition to the death penalty under any circumstances. Once again, we demand its cancellation," she added.
Daly added that Iran executes 200 people a year. "We believe that Iran must respect the accused’s rights and the necessity to stop using confessions recorded in pressure to prove charges against suspects. We demand that all those responsible for human rights violations, including the violence that was used against the demonstrators, be held accountable."
