Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Iranian MP Mahmoud Sadeghi has said that an Iranian scholar from Sweden who was sentenced to death was denied sufficient opportunity to defend himself during his trial.
Ahmadreza Jalali (or Djalali), a resident of Sweden since 2009, is a physician and researcher affiliated with the Karolinska Institute near Stockholm. While on an official academic visit hosted by Tehran University, Jalali was accused of collaboration with a hostile government and arrested in April 2016.
Since then, he has received the death penalty and his request for an appeal has been denied.
Sadeghi tweeted on February 14 that he had received a complaint from Jalali and his initial review shows the convicted scholar was not given sufficient opportunity to defend himself throughout the various phases of the trial.
An Iranian Revolutionary Court, headed by the notorious judge Abolqassem Salavati, condemned Jalali to death in October 2017 on charges of spying for Israel. The authorities also extracted a confession from Jalali on national television that he had spied for Israel.
In his tweet, Sadeghi also wrote that in the complaint he received Jalali says he confessed under duress.
In the past, Jalali had rejected all accusations, saying it was his unwillingness to spy for Iran that had landed him in jail.
Sweden, the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and several European universities have asked Iran to rescind the death sentence and review Jalali’s case.
