'No more empty statements:' Iran ex-detainees press Sweden over death row academic
Djalali, 53, is among a number of Europeans held by Iran in what some countries including France call a deliberate hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Djalali's condition, "worsened by years of medical neglect and psychological torment, is now dire," said the 21 former detainees including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert and US-Iranian Siamak Namazi, who were freed only after years-long ordeals in prison.
"While the Islamic Republic and its heinous practice of hostage diplomacy is the clear culprit here, we are deeply troubled by your government's failure to use the means at its disposal to rescue Dr Djalali," they said in the letter addressed to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson via Stockholm's embassy in Washington.
"No more empty statements. Sweden must act with the same urgency and resolve it has shown in securing the freedom of other citizens," they added in the letter seen by AFP.
Djalali was granted Swedish nationality while in jail.
'A path home'
The letter said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had offered a possible way forward in a recent social media post that it said "implicitly linked" the case to Iran's inability to access treatment for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a disease that affects hundreds of Iranian children and can be fatal without proper care.
"The specialised wound dressings required to treat EB, produced by a Swedish company, have long been blocked due to over-compliance with sanctions," the letter said.
In a post on X last week that lamented a "regrettable shift" in bilateral relations, Araghchi said "Sweden ceased non-sanctionable exports of medicines, including specialised and unique gear for children afflicted with EB".
In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. To the disappointment of his family, Djalali was not included in the swap.
In the letter, the ex-detainees told Kristersson: "A path to bring Dr Djalali home -- alive, not in a coffin -- appears within reach.
"If Sweden fails to pursue it seriously and this Swedish citizen dies in captivity, history will record that your government had more than one chance to save him -- but chose not to. That responsibility will rest squarely with you."
© 2025 AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
Swiss regulator approves first malaria treatment for newborn babies
Switzerland's drug regulator has approved the world's first malaria treatment for newborn babies, clearing the way for the medicine to become available in parts of Africa where the life-threatening disease is endemic. In a late-stage clinical trial, pharmaceutical giant Novartis showed the drug was safe and effective for babies weighing less than five kilograms, which they typically reach by two months of age. Traditionally, these infants have been given either a full or half-dose of the antimalarial drug intended for babies six months or older. But because newborns do not process medicines the same way, there is a higher risk of side effects. The lack of specialised treatment – and the fact that babies are not vaccinated until they are around five months old – has left the youngest infants relatively unprotected against malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that kills about 597,000 people per year. Most deaths are among children under five years old in Africa. It's not clear exactly how many babies are affected, but in 2023, there were an estimated 36 million pregnancies in 33 African countries where malaria is widespread. About one in three mothers were infected with malaria while pregnant, raising the risk that they will pass the disease along to their newborns, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 'Every one of those [babies] is a potential target for malaria infection,' Dr Lutz Hegemann, president of Novartis' global health programme, told Euronews Health. 'We don't want to leave any patient behind, no matter how small they are'. Eight African countries – Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda – are expected to quickly approve the medicine as part of a partnership with Swissmedic, the Swiss drugs regulator. Hegemann said Novartis hopes to roll the medicine out there this autumn, with more countries to follow, on a not-for-profit basis. The medicine, known as Coartem Baby, is similar to Novartis' existing drug to treat uncomplicated malaria in young children, but it has a different dose and ratio of ingredients to prevent side effects in the youngest infants. It also has a sweet cherry flavour and can be dissolved in breast milk to make it easier to give to patients. 'These are small changes, but big steps,' Dr Quique Bassat, head of the Barcelona Institute of Global Health, told Euronews Health. While the number of newborns with malaria 'still remains relatively modest in terms of the overall burden, those cases need to be treated, and therefore we need better drugs,' he added. 'Now we have something which is perfectly suitable for that specific age group where there was a gap'. Bassat advised Novartis on the clinical trial, which was funded by the European Union and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
Local France
3 days ago
- Local France
French court dismisses government Covid response probe
The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) closed the probe five years after it began in July 2020 over complaints that the government mismanaged its reaction to the virus's spread, including a lack of protective gear and unclear guidance over mask wearing. Then prime minister Philippe, ex-health minister Agnès Buzyn and her successor Olivier Véran were named as assisted witnesses - a status in the French legal system that falls between that of a witness and a formal suspect. "The investigating committee of the Court of Justice of the Republic has decided to dismiss the case," prosecutor general Remy Heitz said on Monday, without offering details. Advertisement The public prosecutor in May requested the case be dismissed -- a move that effectively ruled out a trial. The CJR is the only court authorised to prosecute and try former and current government members for alleged crimes and offences committed in exercising their official duties. Its investigation found the government had taken several measures to combat the pandemic, Heitz said in May. The prosecutor's request - seen by AFP - argued that while the measures taken to combat the spread of Covid-19 were insufficient, neither Philippe nor Véran deliberately refused to respond to the disaster. "Each, at their own level, fought the epidemic from the moment it emerged in France," the request said. Buzyn had been sharply criticised for leaving her post at the start of the health crisis to run for mayor of Paris. But she actually left on February 16th, 2020 - a few days before an official disaster was declared in France with the first death of a Covid-19 patient recorded on February 25th, the prosecutor general's office added. Buzyn had also been under investigation for endangering the lives of others, but France's Court of Cassation dropped that charge in January 2023. Philippe, a popular premier from 2017 to July 2020, is now mayor of the northern city of Le Havre and leads a right-centre party allied with, but not part of, Macron's centrist faction. Advertisement He is the only leading contender to firmly have declared his intention to stand in the 2027 presidential election. READ ALSO : ANALYSIS: Who's who in France's 2027 presidential election race✎ According to France's public health agency, around 168,000 people died from Covid-19 between February 2020 and September 2023, when the World Health Organization declared the global health emergency over.
France 24
7 days ago
- France 24
New Delhi says fuel ban on old vehicles not feasible
New Delhi is regularly ranked as one of the most polluted capitals globally with vehicular emissions being one of the worst offenders, according to several studies. At the peak of the smog, levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- surge to more than 60 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum. The fuel restriction was introduced Tuesday to reinforce an already-existing but widely disregarded ban on petrol cars older than 15 years, and diesel vehicles older than 10. But Delhi's environment minister, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, told reporters the fuel ban was not feasible because of "crucial issues related to technological glitches". Number plate-recognising cameras and loudspeakers installed at fuelling stations were "malfunctioning", Sirsa said, leading to "fights and arguments". The ban had resulted in public "discontent", he added. Sirsa said he had written to the area's pollution control authority, explaining the problems in implementing the ban. "Unless there is a robust system and the ban is everywhere, it will not work," he added. The ban was to be extended to satellite cities around the capital, an area home to more than 32 million people, from November. A study in The Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths in India to air pollution in 2019. Each winter, vehicle and factory emissions coupled with farm fires from surrounding states wrap the city in a dystopian haze. Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants. Piecemeal government initiatives, such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air, have failed to make a noticeable impact. © 2025 AFP
