Stop the execution of Ahmadreza Djalali

On 4th May 2022, it was reported that Ahmadeza Djalal’s death sentence was to be carried out by Saturday 21st May. The execution has been delayed and halted before.

We now call on you to ensure that the sentence is halted indefinitely and Ahmadreza is immediately released with his conviction and sentence quashed.

Ahmadreza Djalali is a Swedish-Iranian doctor and academic arrested in Iran in April 2016. He was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” (efsad-e fel-arz) in October 2017 after a grossly unfair trial before Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The court relied primarily on “confessions” that Ahmadreza says were obtained under torture and other ill-treatment while he was held in prolonged solitary confinement without access to a lawyer. These included threats to execute him, kill or otherwise harm his children, who live in Sweden, and his mother, who lives in Iran. Amnesty International has consistently held that the offence of “corruption on earth” fails to meet requirements for clarity and precision needed in criminal law and breaches the principle of legality and legal certainty. On 9 December 2018, his lawyers learned that Branch 1 of the Supreme Court had upheld his death sentence without granting them an opportunity to file their defence submissions on his behalf. At least three requests for a judicial review of Ahmadreza Djalali’s case have been rejected by the Supreme Court. Ahmadreza Djalali has several health conditions for which he has not received adequate medical treatment and medication.

I ask you to immediately stop any plans to execute Ahmadreza Djalali, quash his conviction and sentence, immediately release him and ensure he is provided with adequate medical care. Ahmadreza must be protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and I call on you to order a prompt, independent, effective, and impartial investigation into his allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.

Kind regards,