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A researcher of disaster medicine has been sentenced to death in Iran on charges of spying for the Israeli government, Nature News reported.
Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish resident who earned his Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institute and teaches at the Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, in Italy, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Belgium, was arrested in April 2016 during an academic visit to Iran. He was sentenced to death Oct. 21 and reportedly had 20 days to appeal his sentence.
An Amnesty International official described the trial of the Iranian-born Djalali as “grossly unfair.”
“No evidence has ever been presented to show that he is anything other than an academic peacefully pursuing his profession,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
A letter from the Middle Eastern Studies Association's Committee on Academic Freedom notes that a document circulated by contacts of Djalali "that claims to be a literal transcription of a handwritten text produced by Dr. Djalali inside [Tehran's] Evin Prison" states that Djalali believes he was arrested for refusing to spy on European countries on their critical infrastructures and counterterrorism capabilities. The document states that Djalali never spied for Israel or any other country.
