Latest news with #AhmadrezaDjalali
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'No more empty statements:' Iran ex-detainees press Sweden over death row academic
Over 20 foreign nationals who themselves endured years of captivity in Iran on Wednesday urged Sweden to step up efforts to free a Swedish-Iranian citizen sentenced to death in the country, after he had a heart attack last week. Ahmadreza Djalali, an academic who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges he denies, suffered a heart attack in Tehran's Evin prison, his wife said Friday. Djalali, 53, is among a number of Europeans held by Iran in what some countries including France call a deliberate hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear programme. Djalali's condition, "worsened by years of medical neglect and psychological torment, is now dire," said the 21 former detainees including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert and US-Iranian Siamak Namazi, who were freed only after years-long ordeals in prison. "While the Islamic Republic and its heinous practice of hostage diplomacy is the clear culprit here, we are deeply troubled by your government's failure to use the means at its disposal to rescue Dr Djalali," they said in the letter addressed to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson via Stockholm's embassy in Washington. "No more empty statements. Sweden must act with the same urgency and resolve it has shown in securing the freedom of other citizens," they added in the letter seen by AFP. Djalali was granted Swedish nationality while in jail. - 'A path home' - The letter said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had offered a possible way forward in a recent social media post that it said "implicitly linked" the case to Iran's inability to access treatment for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a disease that affects hundreds of Iranian children and can be fatal without proper care. "The specialised wound dressings required to treat EB, produced by a Swedish company, have long been blocked due to over-compliance with sanctions," the letter said. In a post on X last week that lamented a "regrettable shift" in bilateral relations, Araghchi said "Sweden ceased non-sanctionable exports of medicines, including specialised and unique gear for children afflicted with EB". 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. To the disappointment of his family, Djalali was not included in the swap. In the letter, the ex-detainees told Kristersson: "A path to bring Dr Djalali home -- alive, not in a coffin -- appears within reach. "If Sweden fails to pursue it seriously and this Swedish citizen dies in captivity, history will record that your government had more than one chance to save him -- but chose not to. That responsibility will rest squarely with you." cf-sjw/as/js
France 24
14-05-2025
- Health
- France 24
'No more empty statements:' Iran ex-detainees press Sweden over death row academic
Ahmadreza Djalali, an academic who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges he denies, suffered a heart attack in Tehran's Evin prison, his wife said Friday. Djalali, 53, is among a number of Europeans held by Iran in what some countries including France call a deliberate hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear programme. Djalali's condition, "worsened by years of medical neglect and psychological torment, is now dire," said the 21 former detainees including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert and US-Iranian Siamak Namazi, who were freed only after years-long ordeals in prison. "While the Islamic Republic and its heinous practice of hostage diplomacy is the clear culprit here, we are deeply troubled by your government's failure to use the means at its disposal to rescue Dr Djalali," they said in the letter addressed to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson via Stockholm's embassy in Washington. "No more empty statements. Sweden must act with the same urgency and resolve it has shown in securing the freedom of other citizens," they added in the letter seen by AFP. Djalali was granted Swedish nationality while in jail. 'A path home' The letter said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had offered a possible way forward in a recent social media post that it said "implicitly linked" the case to Iran's inability to access treatment for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a disease that affects hundreds of Iranian children and can be fatal without proper care. "The specialised wound dressings required to treat EB, produced by a Swedish company, have long been blocked due to over-compliance with sanctions," the letter said. In a post on X last week that lamented a "regrettable shift" in bilateral relations, Araghchi said "Sweden ceased non-sanctionable exports of medicines, including specialised and unique gear for children afflicted with EB". 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. To the disappointment of his family, Djalali was not included in the swap. In the letter, the ex-detainees told Kristersson: "A path to bring Dr Djalali home -- alive, not in a coffin -- appears within reach. "If Sweden fails to pursue it seriously and this Swedish citizen dies in captivity, history will record that your government had more than one chance to save him -- but chose not to. That responsibility will rest squarely with you." © 2025 AFP
Local Sweden
12-05-2025
- Health
- Local Sweden
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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.
Local Sweden
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Sweden urges Iran to release dual national
Sweden's foreign minister on Friday urged Iran to release a dual national academic who has been held on death row in Tehran for nine years. Advertisement Iranian-Swedish national Ahmadreza Djalali, 53, was sentenced in 2017 on a charge of spying for Israel. He had been arrested in 2016 while he was in Iran for a conference. Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said he was being held in "very difficult conditions" and his poor health was worsening and a cause for concern. "The Swedish government demands that Iran immediately release Ahmadreza Djalali on humanitarian grounds so he can be reunited with his family," she said in a statement. She and the government were doing all they can to secure his release, she added in a message to Djalali's family. Iran's ambassador to Sweden was called in about the detention last month. In June last year, Swedes Johan Floderus -- an EU diplomat detained in Iran since April 2022 -- and Saeed Azizi, who was arrested in November 2023, were released in a prisoner swap with Iranian national Hamid Noury. Noury, 63, is a former senior official in the Iranian prison service and was serving a life sentence in Sweden. Advertisement Djalali was not included in the swap, which his wife, who lives in Stockholm, has criticised on several occasions. The Swedish government maintains it did all it could to obtain his release at the same time as the two other prisoners but without success, as Tehran refuses to discuss his case, as it does not recognise his Swedish nationality. The families of a number of Western or dual nationals being held in Iran, as well as NGOs and diplomats, accuse the Islamic republic of using them as bargaining chips.
