unsaveSave
share-arrowShare
expand-left
full screen Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) has not heard from the wife of death row convict Ahmadreza Djalali since she contacted the Foreign Ministry in October. Archive image. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
“The quiet diplomacy has not helped, something else has to be done. I am primarily thinking that Sweden – the government and the Riksdag – stop meandering about my husband’s release.”
This is what Vida Mehrannia, wife of the Swedish-Iranian Ahmadreza Djalali, who is at risk of being executed in Iran, demands in an open letter in Svenska Dagbladet.
Djalali, doctor and researcher at the Karolinska Institutet, was sentenced to death in 2017. Three times Iran has planned to execute him – most recently just before Christmas.
Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) repeats that “efforts for Djalali continue with undiminished strength” – something Mehrannia has lost faith in.
Mehrannia writes that the claim that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in close contact with her is untrue. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has never on its own initiative contacted her, she claims. At the end of October last year, she contacted the Foreign Ministry and asked to meet Billström.
There has been no response.
Now Mehrannia demands that Sweden’s demand for release be direct, unconditional and loud. Among other things, she demands that Billström summons the Iranian ambassador and makes it clear that Djalali must be allowed to meet Swedish representatives.
Furthermore, she demands regular meetings between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the family.