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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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India’s Navy Launches Submarine, Warships to Guard against China’s Presence in Indian Ocean

A view of the Indian Navy's three frontline vessels during the commissioning ceremony in Mumbai, India, 15 January 2025. (EPA)
A view of the Indian Navy's three frontline vessels during the commissioning ceremony in Mumbai, India, 15 January 2025. (EPA)
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India’s Navy Launches Submarine, Warships to Guard against China’s Presence in Indian Ocean

A view of the Indian Navy's three frontline vessels during the commissioning ceremony in Mumbai, India, 15 January 2025. (EPA)
A view of the Indian Navy's three frontline vessels during the commissioning ceremony in Mumbai, India, 15 January 2025. (EPA)

India's navy on Wednesday simultaneously launched a submarine, a destroyer and a frigate built at a state-run shipyard, underscoring the importance of protecting the Indian Ocean region through which 95% of the country's trade moves amid a strong Chinese presence.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that the Atlantic Ocean’s importance has shifted to the Indian Ocean region, which is becoming a center of international power rivalry.

“India is giving the biggest importance to making its navy powerful to protect its interests,” he said.

“The commissioning of three major naval combatants marks a significant leap forward in realizing India’s vision of becoming a global leader in defense manufacturing and maritime security,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while commissioning the vessels at the state-run Mazagon dockyard in Mumbai.

The situation in the Indian Ocean region is challenging with the Chinese navy, India’s main rival, growing exponentially, said Rahul Bedi, a defense analyst.

Bedi said that the INS Vagsheer submarine, the sixth among a French license-built Kalvari (Scorpene)-class conventional diesel-electric submarines, is aimed at replacing aging Indian underwater platforms and plugging serious capability gaps in existing ones. India now has a total of 16 submarines.

The P75 Scorpene submarine project represents India’s growing expertise in submarine construction in collaboration with the Naval Group of France, Bedi said.

India’s defense ministry is expected to conclude a deal for three additional Scorpene submarines to be built in India during Modi’s likely visit to Paris next month to attend the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

However, the first of these boats, according to the Indian navy, is only likely to be commissioned by 2031.

India commissioned its first home-built aircraft carrier in 2022 to counter regional rival China’s much more extensive and growing fleet and expand its indigenous shipbuilding capabilities.

The INS Vikrant, whose name is a Sanskrit word for “powerful” or “courageous,” is India’s second operational aircraft carrier. It joins the Soviet-era INS Vikramaditya, which India purchased from Russia in 2004 to defend the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal.