The Iranian government would like to put pressure on the Swedish judicial system, while the trial of a former Iranian prison official in Stockholm is ending. The announcement of the upcoming execution comes on the last day of the trial of Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prison official, tried since August 2021 for “crimes against humanity”, war crimes and for the execution of a large number of prisoners in Iran in the 1980s.
According to the indictment in Sweden, Mr Noury, arrested in November 2019, was at the time the assistant deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison, near Tehran, and had handed down death sentences.
This new announcement is therefore not a coincidence, according to Dr. Van Berlaer: “They don’t even bother to hide it. It’s nothing but pressure to influence this verdict again”.
The Iranian government had already tried to exert its influence on the Belgian judicial system in the same way, last year, in order to try to recover one of its diplomats tried in Antwerp in the context of a foiled attack in France.
The Iranian authorities would therefore seek to exchange Mr. Djalali against nationals tried abroad. But “if they execute it, then they will have to find another bargaining chip”, assures the emergency doctor.
Accused of having transmitted to the Mossad – the Israeli intelligence services – information on two persons in charge of the Iranian nuclear program, which would have allowed their assassination between 2010 and 2012, Mr. Djalali had been tried and sentenced to death in 2017.
The professor, for his part, claims to have been convicted because of his refusal to spy on behalf of Iran when he was working in Europe.
In February 2018, during his detention, Sweden granted him Swedish nationality, a few months after the Iranian Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence.
Since then, Mr. Djalali’s state of health has been worrying. The VUB visiting professor has not been allowed to have contact with his wife since the end of last year, which had raised fears of her death. “This announcement suggests that he is still alive,” concludes Gerlant Van Berlaer.
Amnesty has serious concerns
Amnesty International has “the deepest concerns” on Wednesday about the situation of Ahmadreza Djalali after the Iranian news agency ISNA broadcast a report that the Iranian-Swedish doctor would be executed no later than May 21. According to the source quoted by ISNA, there is indeed talk of an execution which would take place by the end of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht, which corresponds to the date of May 21.
The ISNA agency report also establishes a link between the planned execution of Ahmadreza Djalali and the trial of Hamid Nouri, an Iranian official arrested in Sweden in November 2019 and prosecuted in the same country for his alleged role in the 1988 massacres in Iranian prisons.
“Such maneuvers on the part of the Iranian authorities are unacceptable. It is literally vital that countries like Belgium and Sweden put pressure on the Iranian authorities to prevent this execution and demand the release of Ahmadreza Djalali”, insists Philippe Hensmans, director of the French-speaking Belgian section of Amnesty International.
Ahmadreza Djalali has been detained in Iran for six years. Accused of espionage, he was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” after a manifestly unfair trial, according to the human rights NGO. His state of health is, it seems, very deteriorated. Doctor Djalali has also not been allowed to call his wife and children in Sweden since November 2020.
“We must immediately prevent the execution of Ahmadreza Djalali. We call on the Iranian leaders to stop this barbarism”, pleads for his part Jan Danckaert, acting rector of the VUB. “We call on the world to keep up the pressure on Iran to end the unjust and degrading treatment of Ahmadreza Djalali. Unjustly detained in shameful conditions for more than six years, he must be released so that his family can finally embrace him again“, he punctuates.
A petition launched by Amnesty International, urging the Iranian authorities to quash Dr. Djalali’s death sentence and release him immediately and unconditionally, has collected more than 130,000 signatures in Belgium.