Sweden grants citizenship to Iran scientist accused of espionage

Sweden has granted citizenship to a Stockholm-based scientist being held in Iran under sentence of death, the country’s foreign ministry confirmed on Saturday.

Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital, was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and later convicted of espionage, having been accused of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists.

Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in December and Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said Djalali had “confessed” to meeting agents of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to deliver information on Iran’s nuclear and defence plans and personnel.

“We know that he has been granted citizenship by the Migration Board. We continue in our consular work for Djalali and request consular access to our citizen,” a Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

“We have been in regular contact with Iranian representatives, requested access to Djalali and presented Sweden’s view of the death penalty, which we condemn in all its forms. Our demand is that the death penalty is not carried out,” the spokeswoman said.

Read: Iran confirms upholding death sentence for academic over spying

According to Amnesty, Djalali had been on a business trip to Iran when he was arrested and sent to Evin prison in Iran.

The international organisation recently said that he was held and tortured in solitary confinement for three months, adding that Djalali wrote a letter from inside prison in August stating he was being held for refusing to spy for Iran.

Last year, 75 Nobel Prize laureates petitioned Iranian authorities to release Djalali so he could “continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind”.