Letter protesting the ongoing unjust incarceration of Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
c/o H.E. Mr. Ali Bahreini 
Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017, USA
Email: iran@un.int
Fax: +1 (212) 867-7086

 

Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran 

c/o H.E. Mr. Ali Bahreini
Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10017, USA
Email: iran@un.int
Fax: +1 (212) 867-7086

 

Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, Head of the Judiciary

c/o H.E. Mr. Takht-Ravanchi

Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10017, USA

Email: iran@un.int

Fax: +1 (212) 867-7086

 

Your Excellencies,

 

We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to express our continued deep and grave concerns over the now nearly 9-year-long wrongful detention of Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali. Dr. Djalali is a scholar of emergency and disaster medicine who has been imprisoned in Iran since April 2016, following a forced confession. He was sentenced to death in October 2017 on charges of espionage and has had to endure the torment of imminent execution since 2020. Dr. Djalali has undertaken several hunger strikes to protest his arbitrary detention, which have left him in increasingly dire health. We implore Your Excellencies to intervene in this unjust imprisonment and sentence, overturn the conviction, and release Dr. Djalali for a safe return to his family in Sweden. 

 

MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, MESA publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has over 2,800 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and elsewhere.

 

Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish scholar and faculty member in the European Masters Program in Disaster Medicine (EMDM) convened by the Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, was arrested by security forces of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in April 2016 while visiting Iran by invitation of the University of Tehran and Shiraz University to participate in a series of academic activities and visit extended family. We have written numerous letters to you regarding Dr. Djalali (see a joint letter with our European partners on 9 October 2024, as well as letters dated 12 May 2022, 14 December 2020,  5 August 2019,  4 April 2019, 13 December 2018, 8 February 2018, 21 December 2017, 25 October 2017, 6 February 2017) expressing our deep concern about his unlawful arrest, the denial to him of medical attention for serious illnesses--heart arrhythmia, anemia, and high blood pressure--brought about by poor prison conditions, his death sentence based on forced confessions, and the Supreme Court’s upholding of that sentence without allowing submissions from his defense team. Dr. Djalali’s defense team has submitted at least two requests for judicial review since 2017, and in May 2022 it requested a retrial, presenting evidence to refute claims of espionage for foreign entities. All requests have so far been rejected. 

 

During his long imprisonment, Dr. Djalali has been held intermittently in solitary confinement, denied a lawyer of his choosing, and allegedly been subjected to psychological torture, including repeated threats to execute him, as well as threats of arrest and harm to his children. He has undertaken several hunger strikes in protest against the unsubstantiated allegations against him, the most recent of which from 26 June to 4 July 2024, after he was “left out” of a 15 June 2024 prisoner exchange agreement between Iran and Sweden. Since then his health has significantly deteriorated. 

 

We join other academic bodies in expressing our outrage and utter dismay that Dr. Djalali’s ordeal seems to fit the pattern of Iranian officials targeting dual nationals and using them as pawns in pressuring Western powers, such as Sweden in this case, to change their policies toward Iran. Such politically motivated treatment is a clear violation of the fundamental right of academic freedom and scholarly exchange. Hence, we urge your administration to uphold Iran’s obligations under national and international law enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, among others. Indeed, we welcome President Pezeshkian’s 2024 campaign promises to ease tensions and enhance cooperation both domestically and internationally, ensuring that academics such as Dr. Djalali do not fall prey to political disputes. 

 

Therefore, we call on you once again to reverse Dr. Djalali’s capital sentence, reconsider the charges against him, and release him from detention so that he can return to his family in Sweden. 

 

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We look forward to your response.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Aslı Ü. Bâli 

MESA President

Professor, Yale Law School

 

Laurie Brand
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom
Professor Emerita, University of Southern California

 

 

Cc:

 

The Honorable Esmaeil Khatib, Minister of Intelligence

The Honorable Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs

The Honorable Ali Bahreini, Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations

The Honorable Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Honorable Mai Sato, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Honorable Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders 

The Honorable Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Physical and Mental Health

The Honorable Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression 

Mounir Satouri, Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights

David McAllister, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) 

Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

Adam Romanowski, Member of Cabinet of Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

Marta Temido, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights

Łukasz Kohut, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights

Michael O'Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Kati Piri, Member of the Dutch Parliament (House of Representatives)