The wife of an Iranian-Swedish medical doctor sentenced to death in Iran for alleged espionage says authorities have ordered his transfer to a prison where he could face imminent execution.

Speaking to VOA Persian from her home in Sweden on Tuesday, Vida Mehran Nia said she learned earlier in the day that her husband Ahmad Reza Jalali was due to be transferred from Tehran’s Evin prison to Rajaei Shahr prison in nearby Karaj at 5pm Iran time. She said she was informed of the planned transfer in a phone call with her Iran-based lawyer Haleh Mousavian who had just met with judicial authorities to discuss Jalali’s case.

Mehran Nia said she received no update by 10pm Sweden time about whether Jalali’s transfer to Rajaei Shahr prison had been completed but added that she had no reason to believe he remained at Evin. She also said she had not had any direct contact with her husband since a November 24 phone call in which he told her that he was being moved to an intelligence ministry-controlled ward of Evin before a planned transfer one week later to Rajaei Shahr where his sentence would be carried out.

Iran detained Jalali, a disaster medicine researcher who had relocated to Sweden, in April 2016 when he returned to the Iranian capital for a scientific conference at the invitation of Tehran University. Authorities accused him of collaborating with hostile foreign governments and sentenced him to death in October 2017.

Two months later, Iranian state TV aired a video of Jalali seemingly confessing to giving information to Israel’s Mossad spy agency about Iranian military and nuclear scientists, two of whom were assassinated in 2010. Iran considers Israel to be its arch foe. 

But in a voice recording made by Jalali in prison and later posted on YouTube, he said his interrogators had forced him to make the confession. Sweden granted him citizenship in February 2018 to try to persuade Iran to commute his death sentence and release him. 

Since Mehran Nia reported last week that Jalali was put on one week’s notice for a potential execution, there has been an outpouring of social media appeals for Iran to spare his life. The appeals have come from Iranian and international rights activists, academics who worked with Jalali at universities in Sweden, Belgium and Italy, and European officials.

“I call on officials in Europe and the U.S. to pressure Iran to cancel my husband’s death sentence and release him,” Mehran Nia told VOA. “They need to act now to save his life."

In a November 24 tweet, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said she had spoken with her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and was working to ensure Jalali’s death sentence would not be carried out. She also reiterated Sweden’s opposition to the death penalty.

A BBC report published the next day cited Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying Swedish authorities had “incomplete and false" information about Jalali, without elaborating.
In a Zoom briefing on November 25, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Elliott Abrams described Jalali’s treatment as terrible. He also said Iran does not listen to humanitarian appeals and only understands pressure.

The Europeans should make the Iranians pay a price if they go ahead with the execution of Ahmadreza Djalali. They don't listen to humanitarian appeals. The only thing the regime understands is pressure. Words are great, they are a start. Then action. https://t.co/kOWArOB44Epic.twitter.com/WrmiskzG5c

— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) November 25, 2020

“I would hope the Europeans would make (the Iranians) pay a price if they go ahead with this (execution),” Abrams said.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.