Swedish-Iranian national Ahmad Reza Jalali is scheduled for execution by May 21 (end of Ordibehesht), according to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA).
“It has been heard through the informed sources that the death sentence of” Ahmad Reza Jalali “on charges of espionage for Israel has been ordered, and this sentence will be carried out by the end of Ordibehesht at the latest”, ISNA wrote on Wednesday, May 4.
Ahmad Reza Jalali, a university professor, was arrested in 2016 on an academic visit to Iran. Six years later, his death sentence is set to be carried out in the same month he initially arrived in the country.
Iranian authorities have accused him of collaborating with hostile foreign governments and espionage for Israel and have sentenced him to death in October 2017.
In December 2017, Iranian state TV aired a video of Jalali which showed him confessing to spying for Mossad about Iranian military and nuclear scientists.
Broadcasting forced TV confessions is usual in Iran; between 2009 and 2019, at least 355 individuals were forced to appear on television to make “confessions”. Human rights activists have called on Iran to stop this practice.
The report announcing the date for the execution of this Sweden-Iranian national coincides with the final trial date of Iranian official Hamid Noury in Stockholm, scheduled for Wednesday, May 4
The Swedish prosecutors have requested the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for Noury, who is charged with international war crimes and human rights abuses relating to the murders of more than 100 people.
Hamid Noury, a 60-year-old former Iranian Judiciary official, was temporarily arrested at Stockholm International Airport in November 2019 and has remained in jail for the last two years.
He is being tried for involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in the 1980s. Noury was a Deputy Prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in the 1980s. While working in Gohardasht prison, Noury reportedly took part in the mistreatment, lashing, torture, and execution of political prisoners. Noury denies all the allegations.
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised against non-essential travel to Iran for fear that the Iranian government may arrest Swedish citizens for using them as political bargaining chips in response to the trial. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swedish ambassador to Iran to protest the continued imprisonment of Noury.
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