Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian doctor and scientist based in Sweden, was arrested in April 2016 during a congress visit to Iran. He initially spent three months in solitary confinement and without access to legal counsel. During this time, he was tortured and coerced into making a "confession" that he was a spy for the secret service Mossad. According to information from Amnesty International, he had been threatened with execution and the death of his children living in Sweden and his mother living in Iran. 

Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali has always denied the allegations, claiming that they are a fabrication of the authorities.

As early as November 2017, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention requested Iran to release Dr Ahmadreza Djalali immediately and to grant him an enforceable right to compensation and other forms of reparation. The working group considered that his right to a fair trial had been so seriously violated that the detention must be considered arbitrary.

Dr Ahmadreza Djalali is in an extremely poor general condition. Last year, he was diagnosed with severe anemia and suspected to have a bone marrow suppression. He would thus have to be examined and treated in a hospital outside the prison by specialists in hematology and oncology, which has not yet taken place. 

The accusations and defamations that have been made against him since his arrest in Iran by the security and judicial apparatus have never been substantiated and are based solely on confessions extracted under torture. 

According to our information, Dr Djalali is in danger of imminent execution, and the risk of infection with Covid-19 has also increased enormously due to the poor hygienic conditions in the detention centers. 

Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali is indeed another victim with an Iranian/European dual citizenship.

We therefore call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Djalali, as many international institutions have already done several times! 

We remind the Iranian authorities that Dr. Djalali had accepted an official invitation to attend a congress in Iran and was arrested during that congress. An extension of his detention or even an execution will have to lead to a boycott of all international congresses in Iran.

Prof. Dr. Siroos Mirzaei
Medical Professionals for Human Rights  in Iran – Austria

Dr. Behrouz Bayat
Komitee zur Verteidigung der Menschenrechte im Iran-Österreich