- The Swedish doctor published more than 40 articles in medical journals but when an Iranian university invited him to a workshop. He never saw his family again.
- To his colleagues, he is a respected physician specializing in disaster medicine, a highly demanding field.
- A verdict is expected in July and, if convicted, Nouri, 61, could face life in prison.
Life Mehrannia is trying to save her husband’s life. Iran is scheduled to execute him in nine days, on May 21.
For Iran, Ahmad Reza Jalali, a 50-year-old Swedish doctor, is an “Israeli spy.” For his colleagues, he is a respected physician specializing in disaster medicinean extremely demanding field.
“It’s a nightmare,” he told Associated Press from Stockholm, where she lives with her 10-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter, who have not seen their father in the six years since his arrest. “They want to sacrifice my husband.”
How did it all begin?
Jalali, the Swedish doctor was born in the city of Tabriz, in northwestern Iran. He developed a successful career in Italy and Sweden, publishing more than 40 articles in medical journals and teaching throughout the continent. When an Iranian university invited him to a workshop in April 2016, he did not hesitate to attend.
He never saw his family again.
Security services picked him up, accused him of leaking details about Iranian nuclear scientists believed to have been killed by Mossad and He was rushed to Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where he was sentenced to death.
Meanwhile, a historic search in Sweden to hold accountable a former Iranian official accused of committing atrocities has sparked outrage in Tehran.
The two cases have overlapped uncomfortably. Hamid Nouri is on trial in Stockholm for war crimes and murders committed during the Iran-Iraq wara conflict that ended more than a quarter century ago and haunts Tehran to this day.
What is happening between Iran and Sweden?
For the first time, several Iranians who survived mass executions at the end of the Iran-Iraq war have taken the stand in a Swedish court.
Iran denies any link between the contentious trial and Jalali’s death sentence, declared imminent last week as Swedish court proceedings made international headlines. Iran’s judiciary spokesman declared on Tuesday that Jalali’s verdict was final. His family believes the cases are related.
The accusations in Sweden date back to 1988, after Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire. Members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, heavily armed by Saddam Hussein, crossed the Iranian border from Iraq in a surprise attack. Iran blunted its attack.
The sham trials of political prisoners they began around that time, and defendants were asked to identify themselves. Those who responded “mujahideen” were sent to their deaths, according to a 1990 Amnesty International report. International rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed.
Iran has tried to bury this dark chapter in history. But now sensitive memories are being dragged into the light. Former prisoners told the Swedish court that Nouri, a former Iranian judicial official, handed down death sentences, guided convicts to execution chambers and helped prosecutors collect the names of mujahideen sympathizers. Nouri denies his involvement.
A verdict is expected in July and, if convicted, Nouri, 61, could face life in prison. The case resonates in Tehran, where hardline former judicial chief Ebrahim Raisi was part of the commissions that issued execution warrants.
Iran is outraged and condemns the trial as “an unfair and illegal show trial.”
Since then, Iranian authorities have arrested another Swedish citizena tourist traveling through the country, the Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed last week.
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