UN Experts: Ahmad Reza Jalali’s Situation is Truly Horrific
United Nations human rights experts have expressed serious concerns about the health condition of Ahmad Reza Jalali. This Iranian-Swedish physician has been imprisoned in Iran for more than four years. He has been sentenced to death on charges of espionage.
United Nations human rights experts expressed concerns on Thursday, March 18, about the health condition of Ahmad Reza Jalali in an Iranian prison. This Iranian-Swedish physician and researcher has been sentenced to death on charges of espionage.
Experts from the organization described Jalali’s situation as “truly horrific” in every sense and called for his release. According to the UN report, this Iranian-Swedish citizen was held in solitary confinement for more than 100 days with the cell lights constantly on, preventing him from sleeping.
Among these experts are the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, as well as experts responsible for investigating extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detention and torture. These individuals also stated that Jalali, due to medical problems, was unable to eat adequately, which has caused him to lose a significant amount of weight.
These experts stated: “His conditions are so severe that he is not even able to speak properly. We are shocked and concerned about cruel and inhumane treatment toward him.”
Reuters, which published this report, noted that attempts by the news agency to contact Iranian diplomats in Geneva for a response to this matter went unanswered.
Ahmad Reza Jalali is a physician and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He was detained during a trip to Iran in 2016 and was tried on charges of “espionage and cooperation with hostile states” and sentenced to death. Subsequently, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. His lawyers stated that they were not allowed to present their evidence before the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence.
UN experts have emphasized that Jalali’s confessions were obtained under torture and his sentence was issued in an unfair trial. These experts stated that the systematic detention of prisoners in solitary confinement as punishment and under duress, as well as the extraction of false confessions, is systematically carried out by Iranian judicial authorities.
Human rights activists view the detention of dual-national citizens in Iran as hostages for bargaining and negotiations with Western governments by the Islamic Republic.
Some reports indicate that the Islamic Republic has proposed an exchange of Ahmad Reza Jalali with Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat imprisoned in Belgium. Assadi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of participating in and planning a terrorist operation.
Recently, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian citizen who was also accused of espionage, was exchanged for three Iranian prisoners in Thailand who participated in a terrorist operation.
Source: DW
