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Swedish-Iranian investigator Ahmadreza Djalali, 49, has been transferred from his cell in the infamous Evin prison and is now being held where those sentenced to death are placed before being executed.
According to the evaluator in Iran that Expressen interviewed, the news will likely be interpreted as a clear signal from the Iranian authorities to Sweden that they want a prisoner exchange.
– If Sweden does not agree with that, it will remain in prison. This is not the first time he has been transferred to a death cell.
Sentenced to death in 2017
Four years have passed since KI investigator Djalali was arrested by Iranian police during a speaking tour in Iran. In October 2017 he was sentenced to death. Iran accused him of collusion with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, one of the most heinous crimes that can be committed from an Iranian perspective.
In a telephone interview with Expressen last fall, Ahmadreza Djalali said from inside the prison:
– I’ve never spied on Iran. I did not have access to any secret information to hand over to any intelligence organization. In recent years I have presented evidence, also during the trial, that clearly refutes these false accusations.
Both Sweden and Amnesty International have repeatedly demanded the release of Ahmadreza Djalali, claiming that he has been convicted on false grounds. But these protests have not yielded concrete results.
Several prisoner exchanges before
Espionage charges are common in Tehran. The list is long of people who have been convicted of espionage, but were later released. A well-known example is that of the Lebanese businessman Nizar Zakka. Zakka was invited to Iran in 2015 to participate in an academic fair. He was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison for activities against the state.
Zakka was released in the spring of 2019, the award was the release of the Lebanese citizen Qasim Taj al-Din, who was accused by the United States of financing Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
In June, Iran released US Navy veteran Michael White. The award was the release of the Iranian doctor Majid Taheri, who was imprisoned in the United States.
And as recently as Wednesday, Australian citizen Kylie Gilberg was released after two years in an Iranian prison against three Iranians detained in Australia.
The Iranian adviser Expressen spoke with believes that the Iranian regime is probably waiting for Sweden to choose the same path.
– Tehran wants Stockholm to agree to an agreement. Otherwise, it is now very dangerous for Djalali, says the Iranian adviser.
Iranian man arrested in Arlanda
Just a year ago, an Iranian citizen was detained when he landed in Arlanda. I was going on a private visit to relatives in Sweden. The man is accused of violating international law in 1988 in Karaj, Iran. Something about what SVT, among others, reported.
The man has been appointed head of the Karaj prison on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, where thousands of political prisoners are suspected of being executed in the summer of 1988. The then Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini is said to have issued a fatwa ordering executions and killing thousands of prisoners. They were mainly leftists, intellectuals, students, people belonging to religious minorities and members of the popular mujahideen movement and other opposition parties.
The man himself has claimed that he was mistaken for another person.
He was detained at the Stockholm District Court and has been in pre-trial detention ever since, despite having appealed the arrest decisions to the Svea Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Iran wants the man released. That is the price that Iran wants to forgive Ahmadreza Djalali, the Iranian expert in Tehran told Expressen.
Kristina Lindhoff Carlseon, the prosecutor in the case, says she has no information on the prisoner exchange. The Iranian man’s lawyer, Daniel Marcus, does not want to comment on the information.
Expressen has been in contact with the Foreign Ministry, which is closely monitoring the case. They do not want to comment on the information about the prisoner exchange.
The comment of the entire Foreign Ministry on Ahmedreza Djalali
Ahmadreza Djalali’s situation is very serious. Our efforts for him continue unabated. Sweden constantly demands that the death penalty be waived. We have raised it repeatedly, including at the government level.
The Swedish Embassy in Tehran is in contact with Ahmadreza Djalali’s legal representative and Djalali’s relatives in Iran. The Stockholm Foreign Ministry is in close contact with Ahmadreza Djalali’s wife. Our embassy in Tehran regularly requests consular access to visit Ahmadreza Djalali. Unfortunately, it can be stated that Iran has so far not given us permission to visit. The clearly communicated attitude is that Ahmadreza Djalali is seen only as an Iranian citizen. This is because Iranian law does not recognize any non-Iranian citizenship. We take it seriously.
In our contacts, we emphatically present the vision of Sweden and the rest of the EU on the death penalty. The EU is a driving force in the work for the abolition of the death penalty and Sweden is actively involved in the work of the EU. Ahmadreza Djalali has lived and worked in various countries. There is a clear interest and commitment to your case from several of these countries.
For the sake of the case, we cannot go into further details, but we are seeking clarity and are continually raising the issue with representatives of the Iranian authorities. Our position is clear and consistent.
