Vida Mehrannia to Voice of America: I Don’t Want My Innocent Husband Exchanged for Hamid Nouri
As the final sessions of Hamid Nouri’s trial approach—Nouri is accused of participating in the execution of political prisoners at Gohardasht Prison in the summer of 1988—speculation has increased about the possibility of exchanging him for Ahmadreza Jalali, a dual-citizen researcher imprisoned in Iran.
Hamideh Aramideh, Voice of America’s correspondent in Stockholm, conducted an exclusive interview with Vida Mehrannia, the wife of Mr. Jalali, asking for her personal views on the possibility of such an exchange. Mrs. Mehrannia stated that despite the difficulty of being separated from her husband over these years for her and her family, she is not willing for Mr. Jalali, as an innocent person, to be exchanged with someone like Hamid Nouri who is guilty.
Nevertheless, Vida Mehrannia expressed hope that her husband will return home soon after years of torture and suffering. Watch the full Voice of America interview in this video:
Ahmadreza Jalali, born in 1350 in Sarab, is an Iranian-born physician, university professor, and Swedish citizen. A researcher in crisis and emergency management, he was arrested in April 2016 by Ministry of Intelligence agents while traveling to Iran to participate in a scientific conference.
According to Amnesty International, after nine months in prison, including three months in solitary confinement, Ahmadreza Jalali was charged on February 3, 2017, in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court by Judge Abolqassem Salavati with “espionage and selling information to Israel” and corruption on earth, and was sentenced to death.
Jalali has repeatedly rejected all these charges and stated that he was forced to confess against himself under physical and psychological torture. This is despite the fact that, contrary to standard procedure, his death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in less than two months. A photograph released of him at Evin Prison in April 2018 shows that Ahmadreza had become very thin and ill. Continuous pressure from his family for his medical treatment outside prison finally bore fruit, and he was transferred to the hospital in winter 2018 when his condition deteriorated, undergoing abdominal surgery.
This prisoner, who is under severe psychological pressure, has repeatedly come close to the point of execution of his death sentence.
Vida Mehrannia said on Sunday, April 11, in an interview with Voice of America’s Persian Service that her husband, who underwent surgery in February, went to the Evin Prison clinic to receive his medications, but the pharmacy staff refused to give him one of his medications. After Mr. Jalali’s protest against this action, “they pushed him” and this incident “caused a confrontation.”
In this regard, the Iran Human Rights Organization, citing cellmates of Ahmadreza Jalali, reported that he was beaten on April 5 after protesting the “theft of his medications by pharmacy staff.”
Mrs. Mehrannia, expressing concern about Ahmadreza Jalali’s condition and emphasizing the lack of “access to medication,” told Voice of America that her husband is “deprived of a prisoner’s basic necessities” and “this is a form of torture inflicted on Ahmadreza himself and his family.”
Source: Voice of America
