Defence demands retrial for Swedish-Iranian threatened with execution

Lawyers for Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmedreza Djalali, who is accused of espionage and faces execution in Iran, have requested a retrial, his attorney Helaleh Moussavian told AFP on Sunday.

Djalali was scheduled to be hanged on Saturday, but according to his wife, the execution did not take place. Human rights organizations and the Swedish government have both strongly condemned his sentence.

In 2017, he was sentenced to death on charges of espionage for Israel, which Sweden and his supporters denied.

“We requested a retrial from the judicial authority a few days ago,” Moussavian said.

“We provided evidence that our client played no role in identifying the nuclear scientists,” she added.

Djalali was convicted over charges of passing information about two Iranian nuclear scientists to Israel’s Mossad spy agency that led to their assassinations.

Sweden granted Djalali citizenship while in detention in February 2018.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Monday that Iran could postpone Djalali’s death sentence, however affirming that the verdict is “definite”.

“My client’s sentence is still valid and the circumstances have not changed,” Moussavian said.

“Legally, the execution of the death penalty requires the lawyer to be informed in advance,” she continued. “So far, this has not happened.”

The United Nations’ rights commission on Tuesday called on Tehran to halt Djalali’s execution and revoke his death sentence.

It comes after Sweden completed the trial of Hamid Noury, a former Iranian judiciary official accused of war crimes for his role in the killing of prisoners in Iran during the 1980s, in Stockholm.

Prosecutors have asked for life in prison for the former Iranian official, who is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

Meanwhile, Iran has condemned Noury’s “illegal” arrest and trial and demanded his release.