UN Experts Urge Iran to Revoke Ahmadreza Jalali's Death Sentence

Four senior human rights experts from the United Nations called on Iran on Friday to revoke the death sentence of Ahmadreza Jalali, who has been condemned to death on charges of 'spying for Israel.' The Iranian Supreme Court has rejected a request to review Jalali's death sentence. Zeynab Taheri, Jalali's defense attorney, stated that the judge dismissed her request during a court session that lasted less than an hour on Sunday. The UN human rights experts stated in their request: 'We urge Iran to immediately revoke the death sentence issued against Dr. Jalali, as it is clear that he has not been granted a fair trial according to international standards and the right to appeal.' Ahmadreza Jalali was living in Sweden before his arrest in Iran and was teaching at universities in Europe. He was arrested in May 2016, and two months ago, the Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence issued by the Revolutionary Court. Jalali has denied the charges against him, claiming he was arrested and tried for refusing to spy for Iran. Various UN bodies, the European Union, Amnesty International, and several European universities have condemned the issuance of the death sentence and called for a re-examination of the case. The four mentioned experts are José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez, Agnes Callamard, Nils Melzer, and Asma Jahangir. Asma Jahangir is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran. José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez is the head of the UN working group on arbitrary detention. Nils Melzer is the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, and Agnes Callamard is an expert on extrajudicial executions. The Islamic Republic of Iran has aired a video of Jalali's confessions on state television. Jalali's wife has stated that interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence threatened her in solitary confinement in Ward 209 with the abuse of their children to pressure her into producing a film titled 'Chopping at the Roots' with 'cutting of fake and false materials.' According to several observers, the televised confession segment is a common method used by the Islamic Republic to pressure political prisoners; many organizations and human rights activists consider such confessions to be invalid.