Warning from Ahmadreza Jalali's Wife on the Fourth Day of His Hunger Strike; 'His Life is in Danger'

Ahmadreza Jalali's wife, a dual Iranian-Swedish doctor and researcher who has been imprisoned in Iran and sentenced to death for eight years, warned on Saturday that his life is severely at risk due to his hunger strike. Vida Mehranian wrote on Saturday, July 9, that 'Ahmadreza's physical condition is very, very weak, and as he enters the fourth day of the hunger strike, his life is in serious danger.' She shared a photo showing Jalali's extreme thinness in prison, stating that the image reflects 'the condition in which he began the hunger strike.' The Swedish government recently managed to secure the release of two Swedish citizens imprisoned in Iran in exchange for the release of Hamid Noury, a former deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Sweden for his involvement in the execution of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s in Iran. While Amnesty International expressed happiness over the release of Johan Flodros and Saeed Azizi, the Swedish citizens who have finally returned to their country, it continues to express concern over the potential execution of Ahmadreza Jalali, a Swedish-Iranian citizen imprisoned in Iran. Amnesty International has urged the Swedish government to take immediate action for his release and return home and to investigate all suspected Iranian officials for human rights violations against Jalali, including torture. Ahmadreza Jalali was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence agents in May 2016 while traveling to Iran to attend a scientific conference. He was subsequently sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court on charges of espionage for Israel, which he has denied from the beginning. Following Noury's release, an audio file of Ahmadreza Jalali was released in which he protests to the Swedish Prime Minister. In this phone conversation with his wife, Jalali tells Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, 'You decided to leave me despite the risk of execution.' The Swedish government insists it has tried to secure Jalali's release, but Tehran has refused to recognize him as a Swedish citizen, claiming that he received his Swedish citizenship after his arrest in Tehran and that he only held Iranian citizenship at the time of his arrest. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson responded to Jalali's family's criticism regarding his lack of release in a radio interview on June 17, stating, 'I have great respect for their disappointment, but I really do not understand this criticism. The alternative would have been to release two other Swedes who have now returned to their country.' However, this justification from the Swedish government has not silenced opponents and critics of this action. Siamak Namazi, one of five American prisoners released in late September 2023 as part of an agreement between Tehran and Washington, called on the Swedish government to make more efforts for Ahmadreza Jalali's release in an article published in the British newspaper The Guardian on Friday, July 8. This former prisoner wrote, 'I firmly believe that we cannot leave our innocent citizens in the dungeons of rogue countries.' Namazi noted that 'the United Nations has reviewed Jalali's case, deemed his detention arbitrary, and called for his unconditional release,' adding that 'the Swedish government undoubtedly knew that releasing him was like signing his death warrant.' Namazi described Ahmadreza Jalali as 'a noble man whose death sentence was reaffirmed by a totalitarian regime at the moment the Swedish government decided his life was not worth saving.' Previously, on May 27, 2023, 15 former 'hostages' of the Islamic Republic criticized Sweden for its 'inaction' regarding Ahmadreza Jalali's release.