Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic who has been arbitrarily detained in Iran since April 2016, is at imminent risk of retaliatory execution, Amnesty International has said.
Amnesty International warns that it is probable Djalali is being held as a potential bargaining chip in a wider diplomatic context, particularly following the recent Swedish appeals court decision upholding the conviction and life sentence of former Iranian prison official Hamid Nouri for his role in prison massacres that took place in Iran in 1988.
On 19 December, a Swedish appeals court upheld the conviction and life sentence of Hamid Nouri for his involvement in the prison massacres. On 20 December, Iranian state media released a propaganda video featuring confessions by Ahmadreza Djalali, including that he was a spy for Israel, believed by observers to have been made under duress. Djalali, who has consistently denied these allegations, says that his “confessions” were indeed made under torture and ill-treatment.
The same video also included confessions, similarly believed to have been taken under duress, by Swedish-Iranian political activist Habib Chaab, who was secretly executed by the Iranian authorities in May 2023, raising additional concerns for Djalali’s safety.
Djalali’s family have reported that a judicial official visited Djalali in prison on 22 December to tell him that his conviction and death sentence had been “confirmed” and would be “implemented soon”.
Djalali was sentenced to death for ‘corruption on earth’ in October 2017, following a trial that Amnesty says was “grossly unfair” in Tehran. The recent surge in executions by the Iranian authorities, with at least 115 people executed in November 2023 alone, reinforces concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
