Why is a respected Swedish doctor facing execution in Iran?
Pattern of Westerners detained in Iran has grown since collapse of nuclear deal
Vida Mehrannia is trying to save her husband’s life. Iran is scheduled to put him to death within nine days — by May 21. To Iran, the 50-year-old Ahmad Reza Jalali is a spy for Israel. To his colleagues, he is a respected physician specialised in disaster medicine, a most demanding field. To Mehrannia, he is a beloved husband.
Fading hopes
“It’s a nightmare,” she said 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.”
Mehrannia pins her fading hopes on Jalali’s Swedish citizenship and Stockholm’s attempts to push for his release.
The extent of those efforts is unclear, though the Swedish foreign minister called her Iranian counterpart last week and, along with the European Union, expressed categorial opposition to the death penalty and demanded Jalali be released.
How did it start?
Jalali was born in Iran’s northwestern town of Tabriz. He built a successful career in Italy and Sweden, publishing over 40 articles in medical journals and teaching across the continent. When an Iranian university invited him to a workshop in April 2016, he didn’t think twice about attending. He never saw his family again.
Security services scooped him up, accused him of leaking details about Iranian nuclear scientists believed to have been killed by the Mossad and whisked him to Evin Prison where he was sentenced to death. Meanwhile, a landmark quest in Sweden to hold accountable a former Iranian official accused of committing atrocities has kindled outrage back in Tehran.
Foreigners used as pawns
In Iran, some foreigners are pawns, both in Tehran’s internal political rivalries and in tensions between Tehran and Western capitals, analysts say. A pattern of westerners being picked up has grown increasingly visible since the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal.
On Wednesday, Iran said it detained two unidentified Europeans just hours after the EU envoy touched down in the capital in a last-ditch effort to save the tattered atomic accord.
Iran has imprisoned at least a dozen dual nationals in recent years. Most of them are held on widely disputed spying charges.