Iran Broadcasts Alleged ‘Confessions’ of Swedish Researcher Sentenced to Death

A flyer from a protest in February outside the Iranian Embassy in Brussels for Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian academic detained in Tehran and sentenced to death for espionage. PHOTO: AFP
A flyer from a protest in February outside the Iranian Embassy in Brussels for Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian academic detained in Tehran and sentenced to death for espionage. PHOTO: AFP
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Iran Broadcasts Alleged ‘Confessions’ of Swedish Researcher Sentenced to Death

A flyer from a protest in February outside the Iranian Embassy in Brussels for Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian academic detained in Tehran and sentenced to death for espionage. PHOTO: AFP
A flyer from a protest in February outside the Iranian Embassy in Brussels for Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian academic detained in Tehran and sentenced to death for espionage. PHOTO: AFP

Iran's state television broadcasted on Sunday a recorded video showing purported confessions of an Iranian university professor recently sentenced to death after being convicted of espionage for Israel's Mossad during nuclear talks with the West.

In the December 17 broadcast, Ahmadreza Djalali, a researcher at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, admits to supplying information to a foreign intelligence service about Iranian nuclear scientists who were later assassinated.

The tape included clips from an interview with Djalali occasionally intermixed with pictures of an archive accompanied by an announcer's voice that the Mossad had recruited. Jalali is described in the film as a "traitor," AFP reported.

His wife, speaking on phone from Stockholm, said he had been forced by his interrogators to read the confession.

Iran’s Supreme Court upheld last week a death sentence against Ahmadreza Djalali.

Vida Mehrannia, Djalali’s wife, said her husband had been forced to read a pre-agreed confession in front of the camera.

“After three months in solitary confinement, his interrogators told him that he would be released only if he reads from a text in front of the camera,” she told Reuters.

“My husband told me that they shouted at him each time he was saying something different from the text and stopped the filming,” Mehrannia added.

In the television report, Djalali was linked to the assassination of four Iranian scientists between 2010 and 2012 that Tehran said was an Israeli attempt to sabotage its nuclear energy program.

Djalali said in the report that he had given the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad information about key nuclear scientists.

”They were showing me pictures of some people or satellite photos of nuclear facilities and were asking me to give them information about that,” Djalali said in the television report.

He was accused of passing information to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service during the negotiations that led to Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.

After more than a decade of tensions with the West, Tehran in July 2015 signed a deal with world powers to curb its nuclear activity in exchange for the gradual lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

However, United States President Donald Trump called the pact an ‘embarrassment’ and said he would reconsider tough sanctions as Iran fails to comply.

In October, Trump declined to certify that Iran was complying with the nuclear agreement reached among Tehran, the United States and other powers in 2015. His decision triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to bring back sanctions on Iran.



Trump Demurs on US Involvement on Iran, Araghchi Hints it Can Step in to End Fighting

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (not pictured) at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (not pictured) at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Demurs on US Involvement on Iran, Araghchi Hints it Can Step in to End Fighting

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (not pictured) at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (not pictured) at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump declined on Monday to answer what it would take for US to be directly involved in the growing conflict between Israel and Iran, saying he did not want to talk about the issue.

Instead, he continued to press Iran on negotiations on its nuclear program.

“They should talk, and they should talk immediately,” Trump said during a bilateral meeting with the Canadian prime minister during the G7 summit.

Trump added: “I’d say Iran is not winning this war.”

Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to make a veiled outreach Monday for the US to step in and negotiate an end to dayslong hostilities between Israel and Iran.

In a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, Araghchi wrote that if Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”

“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iran’s top diplomat continued. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

The message to Washington comes as the most recent round of talks between US and Iran was canceled over the weekend after Israel targeted key military and political officials in Tehran on Thursday.