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Iran’s Judiciary Rules Out Swap for Condemned Iranian-Swedish Man

Cars drive along a street in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
Cars drive along a street in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
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Iran’s Judiciary Rules Out Swap for Condemned Iranian-Swedish Man

Cars drive along a street in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
Cars drive along a street in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian disaster medicine researcher arrested by Iran, will be executed without a possibility of exchange with an Iranian national tried in Sweden, Iran's judiciary spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"Djalali has been sentenced to death on several charges and the verdict is final. The sentence will be carried out," spokesperson Zabihollah Khodaian said, without saying when it would take place.

Last week, Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the Djalali, sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel, would be executed by May 21. He was arrested in 2016.

Relations between Sweden and Iran have been tense since Sweden detained and put on trial former Iranian official Hamid Noury on charges of war crimes for the mass execution and torture of political prisoners at an Iranian prison in the 1980s.

Noury's trial, condemned by Iran, ended on Wednesday; the verdict is due in July. He could face a life sentence in Sweden.

"These two issues are not related. Mr. Noury is innocent and Mr. Djalali was arrested two years prior to Mr. Noury's case. There is thus no possibility of an exchange of these two individuals," Khodaian said, adding that Noury's case was "politically motivated."

Indicating greater tensions between Tehran and Stockholm, authorities detained a Swedish man in Iran on Friday, a few days after Sweden's foreign ministry advised against unnecessary travel to the country.

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NATO Announces New Mission to Protect Undersea Cables in the Baltic Sea Region

Estonian naval ships sail in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage - The AP
Estonian naval ships sail in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage - The AP
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NATO Announces New Mission to Protect Undersea Cables in the Baltic Sea Region

Estonian naval ships sail in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage - The AP
Estonian naval ships sail in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage - The AP

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced Tuesday that the alliance is launching a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region.

Rutte said at a meeting in Helsinki with the leaders of NATO countries located on the Baltic Sea that the effort would be dubbed Baltic Sentry.

“It will involve a range of assets, including frigates and maritime patrol aircraft, among others, and will enhance our vigilance in the Baltic,” Rutte told reporters. He also said that a small fleet of naval drones will be deployed “to provide enhanced surveillance and deterrence.”

The meeting follows a string of incidents in the Baltic that have heightened concerns about possible Russian activities in the region.

Even as Rutte was meeting in Helsinki with the leaders of eight Baltic nations, there were reports on the Polish state broadcaster TVP that a ship belonging to Russia's "shadow fleet” was seen circling a natural gas pipeline that runs from Norway to Poland, The AP reported.

Finland President Alexander Stubb said the issue had been discussed at the meeting without giving details.

The meeting included leaders from Finland, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Announcing the new operation, Rutte noted that more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables, and 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles) of cables guarantee an estimated $10 trillion worth of financial transactions every day.

“Across the alliance, we have seen elements of a campaign to destabilize our societies through cyberattacks, assassination attempts and sabotage, including possible sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea,” he said.

Rutte said NATO’s adversaries must know that the alliance will not accept attacks on its critical infrastructure, underlining that “we will do everything in our power to make sure that we fight back, that we are able to see what is happening and then take the next steps to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

Pressed for details about what the operation might involve, Rutte declined to provide ship numbers, saying that the figure could vary week to week, and “we don’t want to make the enemy, any wiser than he or she is already.”

“We will make use of the full range of possibilities we as an alliance have,” he said, including “remotely operated vehicles” and drones.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in separate remarks to reporters that Germany will participate in the Baltic Sentry mission. Asked whether that means Germany will contribute ships or surveillance planes and whether he made a specific offer, he replied: “We will participate with everything we have in the way of naval capabilities; that will vary, as far as the concrete possibilities of deployment are concerned.”