Swedish PM: Iran Refused to Negotiate Djalali's Release

Sweden’s prime minister has expressed regret that Swedish-Iranian death-row prisoner Ahmadreza Djalali has started a hunger strike after being left out of the Stockholm-Tehran prisoner swap.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that Iran was unwilling to negotiate for Djalali’s release.

He also advised Swedes against traveling to Iran, saying Swedish citizens who go to countries advised against by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should not expect help if something happens.

Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian currently on death row in Iran, has started a hunger strike to protest being left out of the recent prisoner swap deal that secured the release of two Swedes jailed in Tehran.

The two Swedes were released in return for former Iranian jailor Hamid Noury who was serving a life sentence in Sweden over his role in Iran’s mass executions of the 1980s.

“My husband, Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian political prisoner facing imminent execution by the Islamic Republic, is going on hunger strike starting June 26th, after being abandoned by the Swedish government and excluded from the recent prisoner swap that secured the release of other Swedish citizens,” Djalale’s wife Vida Mehrannia wrote on X.

Arash Sadeghi, a former political prisoner, expressed grave concerns for Djalali, whom he met in Ward 4 of Evin Prison. Noting Djalali's severe emaciation from previous hunger strikes, Sadeghi warned that Djalali's life is now at serious risk.

Djalali, a specialist in emergency medicine was arrested in April 2016 during a visit to Iran and remains imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. He was accused of espionage and later sentenced to death in October 2017 by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

In December 2017, Iranian state TV aired forced confessions by Djalali which was widely condemned by human rights groups and viewed as a means to legitimize the death sentence verdict.