CHRI – In an open letter published December 9, 2018, 121 Nobel Laureates have called on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to ensure that ailing Iranian Swedish dual national Ahmadreza Djalali, a physician and scholar who specializes in disaster medicine, receives the “best possible medical care,” is “treated humanely and fairly,” and to “allow Dr. Djalali to return home to his wife and children and continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind.” The letter was featured by supporters of Djalali at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, which operates under President Hassan Rouhani, arrested Djalali in April 2016 while he was visiting Tehran after being officially invited by the University of Tehran. In October 2017, Djalali, who lived in Sweden with his wife and two children, was sentenced to death for the charge of “collaborating with a hostile government” by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence on December 5, 2017 and the sentence remains under review.
In an undated letter from Evin Prison, Djalali, who was working at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm before his arrest, wrote that he was imprisoned for refusing to spy for Iran’s Intelligence Ministry.
Djalali’s wife has also told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that her husband was forced to rehearse and read a confession that was later broadcast on state TV, and that his interrogators threatened that his family and children would be killed if he did not make the taped statement.
Djalali’s health has seriously deteriorated since he was imprisoned without due process more than two years ago. UN experts have repeatedly raised their concerns about Djalali’s case directly with the Iranian authorities, including in a communication issued in February 2017. At the time, the Iranian government responded that Dr. Djalali had been charged with “corruption on the earth” and had been allowed meetings with his lawyers and phone calls with his family. In November 2017, experts expressed grave concern at the death sentence handed down to Dr. Djalali but on that occasion, the Iranian government chose not to respond.
Following is the full letter by the Nobel Laureates.
9th December, 2018
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Via the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Dear Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
In November 2017, and again in February 2018 I wrote on behalf of a consortium of Nobel Laureates about the plight of a medical scholar, Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested on an academic visit to Tehran in April 2016. We now hear that his medical condition is declining rapidly and he is in hospital and in desperate need of the best possible medical care. In light of the evidence of which we are aware, he deserves a fair trial, which should lead to his release.
We now have 121 Nobel Laureates supporting this cause, and we would urge you to attend to this case personally and make sure that Dr. Djalali is treated humanely and fairly and is released as soon as possible.
We respectfully request that you direct the Iranian authorities to allow Dr. Djalali to return home to his wife and children and continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind.
Yours sincerely,
Sir Richard Roberts Ph.D., F.R.S.
121 Laureates
Name Category Prize Year
Peter Agre Chemistry 2003
George A. Akerlof Economics 2001
Hiroshi Amano Physics 2014
Robert J. Aumann Economics 2005
Barry Clark Barish Physics 2017
Francoise Barre-Sinoussi Medicine 2008
Georg Bednorz Physics 1987
Michael Bishop Medicine 1989
Gunter Blobel Medicine 1999
Sydney Brenner Medicine 2002
William C. Campbell Medicine 2015
Thomas R. Cech Chemistry 1989
Martin Chalfie Chemistry 2008
Aaron Ciechanover Chemistry 2004
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio Literature 2008
M. Coetzee Literature 2003
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji Physics 1997
Elias James Corey Chemistry 1990
Robert F. Curl Jr. Chemistry 1996
Johann Deisenhofer Chemistry 1988
Shirin Ebadi Peace 2003
Gerhard Ertl Chemistry 2007
Andrew Z. Fire Medicine 2006
Edmond H. Fischer Medicine 1992
Joachim Frank Chemistry 2017
Jerome I. Friedman Physics 1990
Leymah Roberta Gbowee Peace 2011
Andre Geim Physics 2010
Walter Gilbert Chemistry 1980
Sheldon Glashow Physics 1979
Paul Greengard Medicine 2000
Carol W. Greider Medicine 2009
David J. Gross Physics 2004
Robert H. Grubbs Chemistry 2005
Roger Guillemin Medicine 1977
Sir John B. Gurdon Medicine 2012
John L. Hall Physics 2005
Serge Haroche Physics 2012
Oliver Hart Economics 2016
Leland H. Hartwell Medicine 2001
Dudley R. Herschbach Chemistry 1986
Avram Hershko Chemistry 2004
Jules A. Hoffmann Medicine 2011
Roald Hoffmann Chemistry 1981
Robert Horvitz Medicine 2002
Robert Huber Chemistry 1988
Tim Hunt Medicine 2001
Louis J. Ignarro Medicine 1998
Elfriede Jelinek Literature 2004
Brian D. Josephson Physics 1973
Takaaki Kajita Physics 2015
Eric R. Kandel Medicine 2000
Tawakkul Karman Peace 2011
Wolfgang Ketterle Physics 2001
F.W. de Klerk Peace 1993
Klaus von Klitzing Physics 1985
Brian K. Kobilka Chemistry 2012
Roger D. Kornberg Chemistry 2006
Finn E. Kydland Economics 2004
Yuan T. Lee Chemistry 1986
Anthony J. Leggett Physics 2003
Jean-Marie Lehn Chemistry 1987
Michael Levitt Chemistry 2013
Tomas Lindahl Chemistry 2015
Robert E. Lucas Jr. Economics 1995
Eric S. Maskin Economics 2007
John C. Mather Physics 2006
Daniel L. McFadden Economics 2000
Craig C. Mello Medicine 2006
Robert C. Merton Economics 1997
Hartmut Michel Chemistry 1988
Patrick Modiano Literature 2014
Paul L. Modrich Chemistry 2015
William E. Moerner Chemistry 2014
Edvard Moser Medicine 2014
May-Britt Moser Medicine 2014
Herta Muller Literature 2009
Kary B. Mullis Chemistry 1993
Robert A. Mundell Economics 1999
Alice Munro Literature 2013
Ferid Murad Medicine 1998
Erwin Neher Medicine 1991
Douglas D. Osheroff Physics 1996
Orhan Pamuk Literature 2006
Arno Penzias Physics 1978
Edmund S. Phelps Economics 2006
John C. Polanyi Chemistry 1986
David Politzer Physics 2004
Stanley B. Prusiner Medicine 1997
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Chemistry 2009
Jose Ramos-Horta Peace 1996
Sir Richard J. Roberts Medicine 1993
Jean-Pierre Sauvage Chemistry 2016
Randy W. Schekman Medicine 2013
Richard R. Schrock Chemistry 2005
Phillip A. Sharp Medicine 1993
Barry Sharpless Chemistry 2001
Vernon L. Smith Economics 2002
Hamilton O. Smith Medicine 1978
Wole Soyinka Literature 1986
Michael Spence Economics 2001
Thomas A. Steitz Chemistry 2009
John E. Sulston Medicine 2002
Jack W. Szostak Medicine 2009
Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics 1993
Kip Stephen Thorne Physics 2017
Mario Vargas Llosa Literature 2010
Harold E. Varmus Medicine 1989
Sir John E. Walker Chemistry 1997
Robin Warren Medicine 2005
Arieh Warshel Chemistry 2013
Steven Weinberg Physics 1979
Rainer Weiss Physics 2017
Eric F. Wieschaus Medicine 1995
Torsten N. Wiesel Medicine 1981
Frank Wilczek Physics 2004
Jody Williams Peace 1997
Oliver E. Williamson Economics 2009
Robert Woodrow Wilson Physics 1978
Sir Gregory P. Winter Chemistry 2018
Michael W. Young Medicine 2017