Wife of Iranian-Swedish Prisoner Left Out of Prisoner Swap Condemns Deal

Iranian physician Ahmadreza Jalali with his wife Vida Mehran Nia
Iranian physician Ahmadreza Jalali with his wife Vida Mehran Nia

The wife of Ahmadreza Jalali, a political prisoner in Iran, has slammed the prisoner swap deal between Sweden and Iran which left her husband behind. 

Speaking to Iran International, Vida Mehrannia labeled the recent prisoner exchange which saw the release of convicted Iranian war criminal Hamid Nouri in Sweden in return for two Swedish citizens imprisoned in Iran, as "ridiculous". Her Swedish-Iranian husband remains behind bars in Iran on charges of espionage, which he denies. 

On Saturday, Sweden released former Iranian jailor Hamid Nouri who was serving a life sentence for his role in the 1988 mass executions in Iran, and Iran in turn released Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus and Swedish-Iranian citizen Saeid Azizi.

According to Mehrannia, her husband has been subjected to solitary confinement and intensified mistreatment as part of Tehran's strategy to leverage detained foreign nationals and dual citizens.

She told Iran International that authorities have failed to provide any substantial answers or efforts to secure Jalali's release. The family, along with their supporters, had no prior knowledge of the negotiations that led to the recent prisoner exchange, only learning about it through media reports.

Jalali was arrested in 2016. The case, purportedly a retaliation for his refusal to spy for Iran's Revolutionary Guard, led to a death sentence.