Vida Mehrannia: Ahmad Reza Jalali's health condition is not favorable and the Swedish government is not following up on the situation of dual-nationality prisoners

Ahmad Reza Jalali's wife told VOA that the Iranian-Swedish dual-citizen doctor imprisoned in Iran underwent surgery at a hospital outside the prison for intestinal adhesions and that his physical condition was not favorable.

Vida Mehrannia, the wife of Ahmad Reza Jalali, told VOA Persian that Mr. Jalali was transferred to a hospital outside Evin Prison on Saturday, February 21, due to acute intestinal adhesions, and underwent surgery. According to Ms. Mehrannia, her husband was transferred back to prison on Sunday, February 21, just one day after the surgery, despite needing medical leave.

Ms. Mehrannia, noting that this is the second time in the past three years that Mr. Jalali has undergone this surgery, added: "His physical condition is not good, considering that he underwent surgery. He has not been allowed to make phone calls since last year. This information was given to us by his relatives, and we are concerned about his mental and physical condition."

He continued to tell VOA: "Ahmad Reza's condition is not favorable. He has been in poor mental and physical condition for several years. He has lost a lot of weight. We hope that European governments will do something for Ahmad Reza and the entire dual-citizen prison and make every effort to release these prisoners."

Regarding the latest status of Mr. Jalali's case, Ms. Mehrannia also said that the authorities did not pay any attention to resuming the trial, and that European officials and the European Parliament, despite their promises to follow up, have not followed up through international and political relations.

He continued to tell VOA: "It is clear that if European governments are not willing to do something to release political prisoners and dual nationals, Iran will certainly not release them."

Referring to the hunger strike of a group of former prisoners, political and human rights activists in Vienna, Ahmad Reza Jalali's wife said: "I hope these strikes will have an effect, and they will have a 100 percent effect because the governments of European countries and the United States must know that they cannot ignore the situation of dual-citizen prisoners and only seek political and economic relations with Iran."

At the end of her interview with VOA, Ms. Mehrannia expressed her hope that all dual-nationality prisoners in Iran would be released from prison and returned to their families.

Ahmadreza Jalali was arrested in 2016 while visiting his family in Sweden. He was later sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court on charges of “passing classified information to Mossad” at the height of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s Supreme Court rejected a request to review the sentence in less than an hour.

Last March, UN human rights experts issued a statement calling on Iranian authorities to immediately release Ahmadreza Jalali, an Iranian-Swedish academic who has been arbitrarily detained.