January 25, 2019
In an open letter, 121 Nobel laureates have called on Supreme Leader Ali Kha-menehi to free ailing Iranian-Swedish dual national Ahmad-reza Djalali, a physician and scholar who specializes in disaster medicine.
The letter was featured by supporters of Djalali at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm December 10.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, which operates under President Rohani, arrested Djalali in April 2016 while he was visiting Tehran on an invitation from the University of Tehran.
In October 2017, Djalali, who lived in Sweden with his wife and two children, was sentenced to death on the charge of “collaborating with a hostile government.” The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence last December.
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.