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UN Calls on Tehran to Halt Imminent Execution of Dual Iranian-Swedish Doctor

Iranian-Swedish researcher Ahmedreza Djalali in Barcelona (File photo: AFP)
Iranian-Swedish researcher Ahmedreza Djalali in Barcelona (File photo: AFP)
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UN Calls on Tehran to Halt Imminent Execution of Dual Iranian-Swedish Doctor

Iranian-Swedish researcher Ahmedreza Djalali in Barcelona (File photo: AFP)
Iranian-Swedish researcher Ahmedreza Djalali in Barcelona (File photo: AFP)

The UN human rights office has urged Iran to halt the execution order of Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali and reverse his death sentence.

"We are deeply alarmed by the imminent execution in the Islamic Republic of Iran of Swedish-Iranian doctor, and academic Ahmedreza Djalali," UN rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

The office, she said, urged the Iranian authorities "to halt the execution and revoke his death sentence."

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency has reported that Djalali, sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel, would be executed by May 21.

Iran's Judiciary Spokesman Zabihollah Khodayian said Jalali's death sentence had been finalized.

The spokesman said that Djalali was detained in Iran on espionage charges, and the Swedish government granted him citizenship after he was detained.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran may postpone the execution while stressing that the verdict is "final."

Djalali resided in Stockholm, where he worked at Karolinska Medical Institute and was arrested in 2016 during an academic visit to Tehran.

He was sentenced to death in 2017 on charges of spying for Israel and providing information to its intelligence service (Mossad) about two Iranian nuclear scientists, which contributed to their assassination between 2010 and 2012.

Sweden granted Djalali her citizenship while in detention in February 2018.

Throssell stated that his sentence was "based on a confession that was reportedly extracted under torture, and after a trial that failed to meet international standards."

"In the current circumstances, the execution would therefore constitute an arbitrary deprivation of life," she was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).

She also noted that the death penalty on espionage charges is not in line with international human rights law, stressing that "countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the most serious crimes, which is interpreted as crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing."

Relations between Stockholm and Tehran have been strained after Sweden arrested former Iranian official Hamid Nouri.

He faces charges of crime against humanity and war crimes over killings and torturing political prisoners.

Nouri's trial, which Iran has denounced, ended on May 4, and the verdict is expected in July. He could face life imprisonment in Sweden.

The Iranian judiciary ruled out any exchange of prisoners between Tehran and Stockholm, specifically between Djalali and Nouri.

Nouri's court is of great importance as it is the first time an Iranian official has gone on trial for executions.

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Blinken Meets China’s Wang after Chiding Beijing’s ‘Escalating Actions’ at Sea

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Blinken Meets China’s Wang after Chiding Beijing’s ‘Escalating Actions’ at Sea

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday during a regional summit in Laos, hours after criticizing Beijing's "escalating and unlawful actions" in the South China Sea.

Blinken and Wang shook hands and exchanged greetings in front of cameras but made no comments before moving to closed-door talks in what will be their sixth meeting since June 23, when Blinken visited Beijing in a significant sign of improvement for strained relations between the world's two biggest economies.

Though Blinken had singled out China over its actions against US defense ally the Philippines in the South China Sea during a meeting with Southeast Asian counterparts earlier on Saturday, he also lauded the two countries for their diplomacy after Manila completed a resupply mission to troops in an area also claimed by Beijing.

The troop presence has for years angered China, which has clashed repeatedly with the Philippines over Manila's missions to a grounded navy ship at the Second Thomas Shoal, causing regional concern about an escalation.

The two sides this week reached an arrangement over how to conduct those missions.

"We are pleased to take note of the successful resupply today of the Second Thomas shoal, which is the product of an agreement reached between the Philippines and China," Blinken told ASEAN foreign ministers.

"We applaud that and hope and expect to see that it continues going forward."

GAZA SITUATION 'DIRE'

Blinken and Wang attended Saturday's security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos alongside top diplomats of major powers including Russia, India, Australia, Japan, the European, Britain and others, before heading to their meeting.

Blinken said earlier the United States was "working intensely every single day" to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and find a path to more enduring peace and security.

His remarks follow those of Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who said the need for sustainable peace was urgent and international law should be applied to all. The comment from the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, was a veiled reference to recent decisions by two international courts over Israeli's Gaza offensives.

"We cannot continue closing our eyes to see the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza," she said.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza since Israel launched its incursion, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.

Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from armed groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killed or taken prisoner, out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.

The war began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.

Also in Laos, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said guidelines on the operation of US nuclear assets on the Korean peninsula were certain to add to regional security concerns.

Lavrov, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, said he had not been briefed on the details of the plan, which was of concern to Russia.

"So far we can't even get an explanation of what this means, but there is no doubt that it causes additional anxiety," Russia's state-run RIA new agency quoted him as saying.

'THIS IS NOT SUSTAINABLE'

Ahead of Saturday's two summits, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged Myanmar's military rulers to take a different path and end an intensifying civil war, pressing the generals to abide by their commitment to follow ASEAN's five-point consensus peace plan.

The conflict pits Myanmar's well-equipped military against a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebel groups and an armed resistance movement that has been gaining ground and testing the generals' ability to govern.

The junta has largely ignored the ASEAN-promoted peace effort, and the 10-member bloc has hit a wall as all sides refuse to enter into dialogue.

"We see the instability, the insecurity, the deaths, the pain that is being caused by the conflict," Wong told reporters.

"My message from Australia to the regime is, this is not sustainable for you or for your people."

An estimated 2.6 million people have been displaced by fighting. The junta has been condemned for excessive force in its air strikes on civilian areas and accused of atrocities, which it has dismissed as Western disinformation.

ASEAN issued a communique on Saturday, two days after its top diplomats met, stressing it was united behind its peace plan for Myanmar, saying it was confident in its special envoy's resolve to achieve "an inclusive and durable peaceful resolution" to the conflict.

It condemned violence against civilians and urged all sides in Myanmar to cease hostilities.

ASEAN welcomed unspecified practical measures to reduce tension in the South China Sea and prevent accidents and miscalculations, while urging all stakeholders to halt actions that could complicate and escalate disputes.

The ministers described North Korea's missile tests as worrisome developments and urged peaceful resolutions to the conflicts in Ukraine, as well as Gaza, expressing concern over the dire humanitarian situation and "alarming casualties" there.