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Trial of Stockholm academic facing death penalty in Iran begins

The trial of a Stockholm academic who is detained in Iran on what Amnesty International calls 'extremely vague grounds' and could face the death penalty is set to get under way.

Published: 22 August 2017 08:40 CEST
Trial of Stockholm academic facing death penalty in Iran begins
Ahmadreza Djalali has been detained in Iran since last year. Photo: Personal/TT

Researcher Ahmadreza Djalali has been detained since last April. He was arrested in Tehran for espionage and 'enmity with God' – a crime which in Iran can result in the death penalty – during a visit for a conference last year.

An Iranian citizen, the academic has a permanent residence permit in Sweden, where he conducted research in disaster medicine at the prestigious Karolinska Institute, and lived with his wife and two children. He previously worked at the University of Eastern piedmont in Italy, and the Italian government expressed “extreme concern” for his safety in February.

READ ALSO: 'Extreme concern' for academic held in Iran

Human rights organization Amnesty International has urged the authorities to release Djalali or give him a fair and secure trial.

“We hope he will be released. He has been in prison since April last year on extremely vague grounds,” Amnesty Sweden spokesperson Ami Hedenborg said.

“You have to ask yourself what it is really about. There is a great deal of concern over what may happen.”

READ ALSO: PM Löfven brings up human rights on Iran visit

Hedenborg added that it is impossible to speculate about what may happen, as the Iranian justice system is difficult to comprehend:

“Iran has an arbitrary legal system which doesn't comply with the international conditions for a fair trial. It could easily be cancelled or the sentence announced within two minutes”.

The trial was previously scheduled to start in early August, but was postponed when the judge took ill.

“We have asked to attend, but received a refusal,” Anne Torngren from Sweden’s Foreign Ministry told news agency TT.  The Swedish embassy has also applied for permission to visit Djalali.

The researcher's wife admits she is not optimistic about the trial.

“I can’t expect anything from my home country,” she said.

Djalali launched a hunger strike earlier this year, leading his family to become concerned about his health.

READ ALSO: Academic who faces death penalty 'refuses to eat or drink' 

TRIAL

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists

Three leaders of an Iranian Arab separatist group pleaded not guilty to financing and promoting terrorism in Iran with Saudi Arabia's backing, as their trial opened in Denmark on Thursday.

Published: 30 April 2021 08:09 CEST
Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists
File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The three risk 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Aged 39 to 50, the trio are members of the separatist organisation ASMLA (Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is based in Denmark and the Netherlands and which Iran considers a terrorist group.

The three, one of whom is a Danish citizen, have been held in custody in Denmark since February 2020.

Gert Dyrn, lawyer for the eldest of the three, told AFP that in his client’s opinion “what they are charged with is legitimate resistance towards an oppressive regime.”

“They are not denying receiving money from multiple sources, including Saudi Arabia, to help the movement and help them accomplish their political aim,” Dyrn said. 

His client has lived as a refugee in Denmark since 2006. 

According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, the three received around 30 million kroner (four million euros, $4.9 million) for ASMLA and its armed branch, through bank accounts in Austria and the United Arab Emirates.

The trio is also accused of spying on people and organisations in Denmark between 2012 and 2020 for Saudi intelligence.

Finally, they are also accused of promoting terrorism and “encouraging the activities of the terrorist movement Jaish Al-Adl, which has activities in Iran, by supporting them with advice, promotion, and coordinating attacks.”

The case dates back to 2018 when one of the three was the target of a foiled attack on Danish soil believed to be sponsored by the Iranian regime in retaliation for the killing of 24 people in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in September 2018.

READ ALSO:

Tehran formally denied the attack plan in Denmark, but a Danish court last year jailed a Norwegian-Iranian for seven years for his role in the plot. 

That attack put Danish authorities on the trail of the trio’s ASMLA activities.

Sunni Saudi Arabia is the main rival in the Middle East of Shia Iran, and Tehran regularly accuses it, along with Israel and the United States, of supporting separatist groups.

Lawyer Gert Dyrn said this was “the first case in Denmark within terror law where you have to consider who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.”

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