عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Iran Postpones Execution of Iranian-Swedish Academic

The death sentence of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali has strained tension between Tehran and Stockholm. AFP
The death sentence of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali has strained tension between Tehran and Stockholm. AFP
TT
TT

Iran Postpones Execution of Iranian-Swedish Academic

The death sentence of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali has strained tension between Tehran and Stockholm. AFP
The death sentence of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali has strained tension between Tehran and Stockholm. AFP

The planned execution of Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in Iran three years ago for spying, has been postponed, his wife said Thursday.

Vida Mehran Nia told AFP she had been informed by her husband's lawyer that Iranian authorities had decided to delay the execution for "some days".

According to information gathered by rights group Amnesty International, Djalali was scheduled to be moved on Tuesday afternoon to a prison in the Iranian city of Karaj where the execution was to be carried out, but his wife said he had not yet been transferred.

Mehran Nia told AFP she believed the postponement was related to "political issues" in Iran, and even if it was a "good sign" she was unsure what it meant for her husband's chances.

"I don't know honestly, but at least we have some hope," said Mehran Nia, who lives in Sweden.

Djalali, formerly based in Stockholm where he worked at the Karolinska Institute, a medical university, was arrested during a visit to Iran in April 2016.

He was subsequently found guilty of passing information about two Iranian nuclear scientists to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency that led to their assassinations.

While imprisoned he was granted Swedish citizenship in February 2018, only months after his death sentence was confirmed by Iran's Supreme Court.

Djalali has claimed he is being punished for refusing to spy for Iran while working in Europe and his death sentence has been widely condemned by rights groups and by UN rights experts.

The case strained relations between Sweden and Iran after Swedish foreign minister Ann Linde urged Tehran to call off the execution on Twitter last week, writing that she had spoken to her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif about the case.

"Sweden denounces the death penalty and is working so that the sentence against Djalali is not carried out," Linde wrote.

Linde's comments were denounced by Iran the following day, with foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh saying that "all interference in the issuance or carrying out of judicial decisions is rejected as unacceptable."

Most Viewed

 
 
World

CIA Believes COVID Most Likely Originated from a Lab but Has Low Confidence in its Own Finding

(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
TT
TT

CIA Believes COVID Most Likely Originated from a Lab but Has Low Confidence in its Own Finding

(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director, The Associated Press reported.
The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency's assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
Earlier reports on the origins of COVID-19 have split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.
The CIA "continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.
Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China's virology labs.
Lawmakers have pressured America's spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths. It's a question with significant domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic's legacy.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Saturday he was “pleased the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation" and he commended Ratcliffe for declassifying the assessment.
“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Cotton said in a statement.
Chinese authorities have dismissed speculation about COVID's origins as unhelpful and motivated by politics. On Saturday, a spokesperson for China's US embassy said the CIA report has no credibility.
“We firmly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.
While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.
Some official investigations, however, have raised the the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.
The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a lab.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario, too.
“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.