STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s foreign minister said on Tuesday she had spoken to her Iranian counterpart after reports Iran may soon enforce a death sentence on Swedish-Iranian scientist Ahmadreza Djalali.
Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital, was arrested in Iran in 2016 and later convicted of espionage, having been accused of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists. Iran’s Supreme Court in 2017 upheld the death sentence.
Swedish radio earlier on Tuesday cited Djalali’s wife as saying he had called her in the morning to tell her he believed he may soon be executed.
“In light of reports that Iran may have planned to enforce a death penalty against the Swedish citizen Djalali, I have today spoken with Iran’s foreign minister Zarif,” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said https://twitter.com/AnnLinde/status/1331259258902630400 on Twitter.
“Sweden condemns the death penalty and works to ensure that the verdict against Djalali is not enforced.”
Linde’s spokesperson declined to comment further and the foreign ministry press office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sweden granted Djalali citizenship in 2017.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Alex Richardson)
