LETTER TO THE EU BY FIDU AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS

If you wish to add your name, or the one of your organization, to the list of supporters of this action, please send an email to campagne@fidu.it

 

H. E. Josep Borrell

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,

Vice-President of the European Commission

Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200 – 1049 Brussels

 

An Urgent Appeal for Doctor Ahmadreza Djalali

Launched on 25/11/2020

 

Dear HR/VP Josep Borrell,

We are writing to you to express our deep concern for Ahmadreza Djalali’s case.

We have just learned that Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali had been transferred to solitary confinement and he will be soon transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison where his death sentence is to be carried out. 

Dr. Djalali is an Iranian-Swedish researcher affiliated with Sweden’s Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Italy’s University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara, where he carried out research on improving hospitals’ emergency responses to armed terrorism and radiological, chemical and biological threats. He is internationally esteemed and regularly collaborates with leading European research institutes. Dr. Djalali´s contribution is undeniable in this field of research. His innovative research has been conducted in multicultural environments and in collaboration with colleagues and institutions in several countries. His studies have led to the publication of more than forty scientific papers with the purpose of improving the emergency response not only in his own country, Iran, but also in Europe.

Dr. Djalali was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and later convicted of espionage, with no material evidence provided, following a secret and hasty process led by Iran’s revolutionary court and without allowing any defence submission.

Dr. Djalali spent a period of long detention, with initially total and later partial isolation in Evin prison. For the entire period of imprisonment he was subjected to such heavy psychological torture, that he was forced, on two occasions, to record false confessions, reading what was prepared by the interrogators. Following a trial that took place behind closed doors and in violation of any minimum standard of legality, on 21 October 2017, he was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” (Efsad-e fel-arz).

According to reports by the international scientific weekly journal Nature (23 October 2017), a source close to Djalali revealed, through a document presented as a literal transcription of a handwritten text produced by Djalali inside Evin prison, that in 2014 he was approached by agents of the Iranian military intelligence that asked him to collect information on Western chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear sites, as well as on critical infrastructures and counter-terrorism operational plans. The document states that Djalali believes he was arrested for refusing to spy for the Iranian intelligence service.

We, the signatories of this appeal, ask the EU to take an immediate action in order to obtain the suspension of the death sentence which, in a short time, can end the life of an innocent man, and to ensure that Ahmadreza Djalali can get access to prompt and appropriate medical care.

Thank you for your attention and response.

Sincerely,

FIDU – Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani

ACAT Belgium (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture)

ACAT Germany (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture)

Associazione Luca Coscioni per la libertà di ricerca scientifica

Blood Transfusion Centre of Slovenia

Canadian Medical Assistance Teams

Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP)

CRIMEDIM – Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine (Università del Piemonte Orientale)

ECPM – Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort

Eumans!

Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”

International Academic Network for the Abolition of Capital Punishment (REPECAP)

Iran Human Rights

Legal Awareness Watch Pakistan

Nessuno Tocchi Caino / Hands Off Cain

Regroupement des Jeunes Africains pour la Démocratie et le Développement, Section Togo ( REJADD-TOGO)

Scholars at Risk Italy (SAR Italia)

Science for Democracy

Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights

SISM – Segretariato Italiano Studenti in Medicina APS

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians

The Kenya Human Rights Commission

 

This appeal is also supported by:

Sen. Prof. Elena Cattaneo (Italy)

Amb. Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant’Agata, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy

Prof. Frederick Burkle. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University (US)

Prof. Gregory Ciottone, President of Wadem – World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine (US)

Prof. Francesco Della Corte, Director of CRIMEDIM (Italy)

Prof. Johan von Schreeb, Director Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters Global Health at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

Prof. Ole Petter Ottersen, Rector of Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

Prof. Dr. Gian Carlo Avanzi, Rector of Università del Piemonte Orientale (Italy)

Amb. Giuseppe Berlendi, Ambassador, Representative of Italy to the African Union

Prof. Antonio Cuerda Riezu, Campus de Madrid-Vicálvaro (Spain)

Pia Elda Locatelli, former MEP, former Italian MP (Italy)

Tonina Cordedda, Vicesegretaria Associazione Luca Coscioni (Italy)

Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue, Ricercatore, Mariano Comense, Como (Italy)

Heidi Mertes, Assistant professor in Medical Ethics at Ghent University (Belgium)

Prof. Primoz Rozman, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Cristina Degan, Milano (Italy)

Paolo Rapisarda, Southampton (United Kingdom)

Maria Gigliola Toniollo, Roma (Italy)

Mauro Bozzola, PhD Psychotherapist, Novara (Italy)

Dr Rowena Christiansen, Founder of the ad astra vita project (Australia)

Ashley E. D. Kane, MD, Boston, (USA)

Laura McCulloch

Shari Caputo, RN, MSN, CCNE, Assistant Teaching Professor, Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia (Canada)

Hilary Farren RN, BScN

Irene Maria Antunes Pereira, MD, MSc DM EMDM (Portugal)

Pieter van der Torn, arts n.p., D. Env. (Netherlands)

Awsan Bahattab, Research fellow CRIMEDIM – UPO (Italy)

Fereshteh Pourazari, researcher at RISE (research institutes of Sweden)

Marco Mangini

Stefania Raffa, Anesthesiologist, Novara (Italy)

Francesca Zottarelli, Dermatologist

Marco De Andrea, Asscociated Professor of Medical Microbiology, Università di Torino (Italy)

Silvia Romanzani

Veronica Caschetto

Rowena Christiansen, Founder of Ad Astra Vita Project

James Gosney Jr.

Cecilia Costa

James Smith, Dr, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK)

Andreas Wladis, Professor, Centre for Teaching & Research in Disaster Medicine and Traumatology (KMC), Linköping University  (Sweden)

Ms. Spinella

Paolo Gamalero

Emanuela Parotto, MD, Padova (Italy)

Andreas Ziegler, MSc, EMDM, MBA, MD, General Practitioner, Prehospital EMS (Austria)

Kirsten Johnson, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, McGill University (Canada)

Marta Caviglia, MD, CRIMEDIM (Italy)

Björn Ringselle, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE)

Nicolò Ferraris

Dan Gryth, Assistant professor in Emergency Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

Chris Lee, MD, MScDM, FRCPC Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)

Erika Frank, MD, MPH, FACPM Professor + Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia (Canada)

Paul McCulloch

Maryanne Feil, Therapist, South London (UK)

Loiuse Cox, Doctor (UK)

Joanna McCulloch

Sheila Gregson

Tim Hickling (UK)

Rebecca Hopkins (UK)

Fabio Porru, MD, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam (Netherlands)

Micol Martuscelli

David McCulloch (UK)

Sean Kirkpatrick

Andrew Whittemore

Sadaf Abshar, NP MN (Canada)

Ritu R. Sarin, MD, MSc DM, FACEP, Seattle (USA)

Sara Brady, Doctor, Preseton (UK)

Michela Muserra

Elisabetta Zanetti

Tudor A. Cudreanu, MD MSc(Med) MSc(Disaster Medicine) PhD(Disaster Medicine) Medical Adviser State Health Incident Coordination Centre WA Medical Assistance Team (WAMAT) Divisional Commander Complex Medical Deployments Department of Health Government of Western Australia

Prof. Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, Vice-chancellor Linköping University (Sweden)

Rickard Lundin, Head of centre for teaching and research in disaster medicine and traumatology (Sweden)

Richard Blackburn (UK)

Karin Hugelius, Senior lecturer (Sweden)

Henrik Jörnvall, Senior consultant (Sweden)

Lisa Kurland, Professor in Emergency Medicine, Örebro University (Sweden)

 

 

 

 

Who is Ahmadreza Djalali?

Dr. Djalaliis an Iranian-Swedish researcher affiliated with Sweden’s Karolinska Institute in Stockholmand Italy’s University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara, where he carried out research on improving hospitals’ emergency responses to armed terrorism and radiological, chemical and biological threats. He is internationally esteemed and regularly collaborates withleading European research institutes. Dr. Djalali ́s contribution is undeniable in this field of research.

The arrest and the pre-trial detention

In April 2016, Dr. Djalali was in Iran teaching a class on Disaster Medicine for a Master’s Degree program at the invitation of the University of Tehran. He had  been there numerous times in the past without any problem. On April 24^th, while driving to Karaj, he was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents, accused of “working with hostile governments”. His wife said that that after his arrest he was kept in total isolation for three months. This was followed by partial isolation in Evin Prison. During his long imprisonment, Dr. Djalali has been denied a lawyer of his choosing, subjected to psychological torture and intense interrogations. Besides, he told his family that, on two occasions, he was forced, under heavy psychological pressure, to make confessions in front of a camera by reading out statements pre-written by his interrogators. According to his wife, both his physical and mental health have sharply deteriorated since he has been detained.

The unfair trial and the death sentence

In 2017, Dr. Djalali was sentenced to death following a closed trial that did not meet the minimum international standards of justice. He was convicted in a revolutionary court on espionage charges, specifically spying on Iran for Israel, which he firmly denied. In protest against the decision of the court, Dr. Djalali has conducted a long hunger strike.

A global mobilization

Since Dr. Djalali’s detention became public, many appeals have been submitted to both Iranian and European Institutions by NGOs, politicians, and scientific organizations.

 

The Committee of Concerned Scientists

Italian Senators

Italian Deputies

Scholars at Risk

The European Universities Association

 

LETTER BY 156 NOBEL LAUREATES

27^th November 2020

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran

 

Dear Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

Beginning in November 2017 I have written on behalf of a consortium of Nobel Laureates about the plight of a medical scholar, Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested on an academic visit to Tehran in April 2016. We wrote again in 2018 and in 2019 and support continues to grow.

Below is a list of 156 Nobel Laureates supporting this cause. We would urge you to attend to this case personally and make sure that Dr. Djalali is treated humanely and fairly and is released as soon as possible.

We respectfully request that you direct the Iranian authorities to allow Dr. Djalali to return home to his wife and children and continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Richard Roberts Ph.D., F.R.S.

 

Name	Category	Prize Year
Peter Agre	Chemistry	2003
Sidney Altman	Chemistry	1989
Frances H. Arnold	Chemistry	2018
Paul Berg	Chemistry	1980
Thomas R. Cech	Chemistry	1989
Martin Chalfie	Chemistry	2008
Aaron Ciechanover	Chemistry	2004
Elias James Corey	Chemistry	1990
Robert F. Curl Jr.	Chemistry	1996
Johann Deisenhofer	Chemistry	1988
Gerhard Ertl	Chemistry	2007
Joachim Frank	Chemistry	2017
Walter Gilbert	Chemistry	1980
Robert H. Grubbs	Chemistry	2005
Richard Henderson	Chemistry	2017
Dudley R. Herschbach	Chemistry	1986
Avram Hershko	Chemistry	2004
Roald Hoffmann	Chemistry	1981
Robert Huber	Chemistry	1988
Brian K. Kobilka	Chemistry	2012
Roger D. Kornberg	Chemistry	2006
Yuan T. Lee	Chemistry	1986
Robert J. Lefkowitz	Chemistry	2012
Jean-Marie Lehn	Chemistry	1987
Michael Levitt	Chemistry	2013
Tomas Lindahl	Chemistry	2015
Hartmut Michel	Chemistry	1988
Paul L. Modrich	Chemistry	2015
William E. Moerner	Chemistry	2014
Kary B. Mullis	Chemistry	1993
John C. Polanyi	Chemistry	1986
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan	Chemistry	2009
Jean-Pierre Sauvage	Chemistry	2016
Richard R. Schrock	Chemistry	2005
K. Barry Sharpless	Chemistry	2001
George P. Smith	Chemistry	2018
Thomas A. Steitz	Chemistry	2009
Sir James Fraser Stoddart	Chemistry	2016
Sir John E. Walker	Chemistry	1997
Arieh Warshel	Chemistry	2013
M. Stanley Whittingham	Chemistry	2019
Sir Gregory P. Winter	Chemistry	2018
Kurt Wuthrich	Chemistry	2002
Ada E. Yonath	Chemistry	2009
Akira Yoshino	Chemistry	2019
George A. Akerlof	Economics	2001
Robert J. Aumann	Economics	2005
Oliver Hart	Economics	2016
Finn E. Kydland	Economics	2004
Robert E. Lucas Jr.	Economics	1995
Eric S. Maskin	Economics	2007
Daniel L. McFadden	Economics	2000
Robert C. Merton	Economics	1997
Robert A. Mundell	Economics	1999
Edmund S. Phelps	Economics	2006
Alvin E. Roth	Economics	2012
Christopher A. Sims	Economics	2011
Vernon L. Smith	Economics	2002
A. Michael Spence	Economics	2001
Oliver E. Williamson	Economics	2009
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio	Literature	2008
J. M. Coetzee	Literature	2003
Elfriede Jelinek	Literature	2004
Patrick Modiano	Literature	2014
Herta Muller	Literature	2009
Alice Munro	Literature	2013
Orhan Pamuk	Literature	2006
Wole Soyinka	Literature	1986
Mario Vargas Llosa	Literature	2010
Francoise Barre-Sinoussi	Medicine	2008
J. Michael Bishop	Medicine	1989
Gunter Blobel	Medicine	1999
Sydney Brenner	Medicine	2002
William C. Campbell	Medicine	2015
Mario R. Capecchi	Medicine	2007
Peter C. Doherty	Medicine	1996
Andrew Z. Fire	Medicine	2006
Edmond H. Fischer	Medicine	1992
Paul Greengard	Medicine	2000
Carol W. Greider	Medicine	2009
Roger Guillemin	Medicine	1977
Sir John B. Gurdon	Medicine	2012
Jeffrey Connor Hall	Medicine	2017
Leland H. Hartwell	Medicine	2001
Harald zur Hausen	Medicine	2008
Jules A. Hoffmann	Medicine	2011
H. Robert Horvitz	Medicine	2002
Michael Houghton	Medicine	2020
Tim Hunt	Medicine	2001
Louis J. Ignarro	Medicine	1998
William G. Kaelin Jr.	Medicine	2019
Eric R. Kandel	Medicine	2000
Craig C. Mello	Medicine	2006
Edvard Moser	Medicine	2014
May-Britt Moser	Medicine	2014
Ferid Murad	Medicine	1998
Erwin Neher	Medicine	1991
Sir Paul M. Nurse	Medicine	2001
Yoshinori Ohsumi	Medicine	2016
Stanley B. Prusiner	Medicine	1997
Charles M. Rice	Medicine	2020
Sir Richard J. Roberts	Medicine	1993
Randy W. Schekman	Medicine	2013
Gregg L. Semenza	Medicine	2019
Phillip A. Sharp	Medicine	1993
Hamilton O. Smith	Medicine	1978
John E. Sulston	Medicine	2002
Jack W. Szostak	Medicine	2009
Harold E. Varmus	Medicine	1989
J. Robin Warren	Medicine	2005
Eric F. Wieschaus	Medicine	1995
Torsten N. Wiesel	Medicine	1981
Michael W. Young	Medicine	2017
Mairead Corrigan-Maguire	Peace	1976
Shirin Ebadi	Peace	2003
Leymah Roberta Gbowee	Peace	2011
Tawakkol Karman	Peace	2011
F.W. de Klerk	Peace	1993
Jose Ramos-Horta	Peace	1996
Jody Williams	Peace	1997
Hiroshi Amano	Physics	2014
Barry Clark Barish	Physics	2017
J. Georg Bednorz	Physics	1987
Steven Chu	Physics	1997
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji	Physics	1997
Jerome I. Friedman	Physics	1990
Andre Geim	Physics	2010
Sheldon Glashow	Physics	1979
David J. Gross	Physics	2004
John L. Hall	Physics	2005
Serge Haroche	Physics	2012
Brian D. Josephson	Physics	1973
Takaaki Kajita	Physics	2015
Wolfgang Ketterle	Physics	2001
Klaus von Klitzing	Physics	1985
J. Michael Kosterlitz	Physics	2016
Anthony J. Leggett	Physics	2003
John C. Mather	Physics	2006
Michel Mayor	Physics	2019
Gerard Mourou	Physics	2018
Konstantin Novoselov	Physics	2010
Douglas D. Osheroff	Physics	1996
James Peebles	Physics	2019
Arno Penzias	Physics	1978
William D. Phillips	Physics	1997
H. David Politzer	Physics	2004
Horst L. Stormer	Physics	1998
Donna Strickland	Physics	2018
Joseph H. Taylor Jr.	Physics	1993
Kip Stephen Thorne	Physics	2017
Steve Weinberg	Physics	1979
Rainer Weiss	Physics	2017
Carl E. Wieman	Physics	2001
Frank Wilczek	Physics	2004
Robert Woodrow Wilson	Physics	1978
David J. Wineland	Physics	2012

The Italian Federation for Human Rights unconditionally opposes the death penalty. In this specific case, consider the detention of Dr. Djalali a flagrant violation of fundamental rights and academic freedom. In view of the above mentioned information, the Italian Federation for Human Rights asks the Iranian government to urgently set aside the death sentence and ensure that all fundamental rights, in accordance with the international conventions and treaties, will be respected, to assure his physical safety while in detention and to guarantee the right to effective judicial protection.