Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali denied relevant care after heart attack: lawyer
Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who is on death row in Iran, has been denied proper care after suffering a heart attack last week, his Swedish lawyer said on Monday.
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Djalali, an Iranian who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges and was granted Swedish nationality while in jail, suffered a heart attack in Tehran's Evin prison, his wife said on Friday.
Nima Rostami, Djalali's lawyer in Sweden, told AFP his client had still not received appropriate care.
"The nature of this type of disease requires that people should undergo various types of tests in hospital, including an EKG (electrocardiogram)... But such treatment has so far not been provided," Rostami said.
He said Djalali had seen a doctor on Friday and then a specialist on Saturday, who had both confirmed the heart attack.
"He has received basic care," the lawyer said but "has been denied" relevant care.
According to Rostami, the prison had promised that equipment would be brought to the prison so that tests could be performed on site but that had still not happened.
"The specialised treatment has so far not been administered despite the fact that he still has a low pulse," he said, adding that Djalali's general health condition was poor.
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Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Friday that she had "spoken urgently... with the Iranian foreign minister".
"During the conversation, I demanded that Ahmadreza Djalali immediately receive the specialised care he needs," she said in a post on X, repeating a Swedish demand that Djalali be released.
In a post on X on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Djalali had "access to medical care" and accused Sweden of undermining ties.
"Instead of walking further into a dead end, I call on my Swedish counterpart @MariaStenergard to reconsider the choices that have brought us (to) where we are today," he said.
He criticised Sweden's decision to grant citizenship "to a convicted criminal AFTER his sentencing".
Iran does not recognise dual nationality.
In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. Djalali was not included in the swap.
Western countries have long accused Iran of detaining foreign nationals on trumped-up charges to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.
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