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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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Typhoon Gaemi Weakens to Tropical Storm as It Moves Inland Carrying Rain toward Central China

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
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Typhoon Gaemi Weakens to Tropical Storm as It Moves Inland Carrying Rain toward Central China

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese soldiers clear debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung county in southwestern Taiwan, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)

Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength on the country's east coast Thursday night.

The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. Eight people died in Taiwan, which Gaemi crossed at typhoon strength before heading over open waters to China.

The worst loss of life, however, was in a country that Gaemi earlier passed by but didn't strike directly: the Philippines. A steadily climbing death toll has reached 34, authorities there said Friday. The typhoon exacerbated seasonal monsoon rains in the Southeast Asian country, causing landslides and severe flooding that stranded people on rooftops as waters rose around them.

China Gaemi weakened to a tropical storm since coming ashore Thursday evening in coastal Fujian province, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains in the coming days as it moves northwest to Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan provinces.

About 85 hectares (210 acres) of crops were damaged in Fujian province and economic losses were estimated at 11.5 million yuan ($1.6 million), according to Chinese media reports. More than 290,000 people were relocated because of the storm.

Elsewhere in China, several days of heavy rains this week in Gansu province left one dead and three missing in the country's northwest, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Taiwan Residents and business owners swept out mud and mopped up water Friday after serious flooding that sent cars and scooters floating down streets in parts of southern and central Taiwan. Some towns remained inundated with waist-deep water.

Eight people died, several of them struck by falling trees and one by a landslide hitting their house. More than 850 people were injured and one person was missing, the emergency operations center said.

Visiting hard-hit Kaohsiung in the south Friday, President Lai Ching-te commended the city's efforts to improve flood control since a 2009 typhoon that brought a similar amount of rain and killed 681 people, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.

Lai announced that cash payments of $20,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($610) would be given to households in severely flooded areas.

A cargo ship sank off the coast near Kaohsiung Harbor during the typhoon, and the captain's body was later pulled from the water, the Central News Agency said. A handful of other ships were beached by the storm.

Philippines At least 34 people died in the Philippines, mostly because of flooding and landslides triggered by days of monsoon rains that intensified when the typhoon — called Carina in the Philippines — passed by the archipelago’s east coast.

The victims included 11 people in the Manila metro area, where widespread flooding trapped people on the roofs and upper floors of their houses, police said. Some drowned or were electrocuted in their flooded communities.

Earlier in the week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered authorities to speed up efforts in delivering food and other aid to isolated rural villages, saying people may not have eaten for days.

The bodies of a pregnant woman and three children were dug out Wednesday after a landslide buried a shanty in the rural mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province.