To the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
Dr. Hassan Rouhani,
This is Ahmadreza Djalali, a researcher and lecturer affiliated to universities in Sweden, Italy and Belgium, who is detained in Iran by the Ministry of Intelligence since April 2016. Firstly, I was accused of having a relation with an enemy country, and then through an unjust, illegal, anti-Islamic and anti-human right judicial process, I was convicted with a death sentence in October 2017. Due to the fact that the main accusations and origin of my case is coming from the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ministry of Defense, and you, as a lawyer and the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran are responsible to protect the constitution principles of Iran and also protect legal rights of Iranian people. I felt it therefore necessary to inform you about the points below, to prove that I am innocent. Hope you will order relevant staff to follow and solve this issue as soon as possible:
- Referencing to the constitution, Islamic punishment law and criminal judiciary procedures of Iran, the detention of an accused in solitary confinement, preventing him to access an attorney, performing acts of torture, threatening, forcing and also hitting the accused are totally illegal. As a result, all verbal or written statements, testimonies, confessions and even a sworn is worthless and not valid. In this situation, the judge must re-conduct the investigation and he must ask all the questions from the accused again. From Islamic principal aspects, the confessions are valid just if they are expressed by the accused in the presence of the judge, during the court of course. However, if the accused denies his confessions after his own explanation, the punishment must be cancelled, even if it is in progress. Then the judge must look for other documents against the accused. I clearly declared while I was detained in section 209 of Evin prison, the detention house of Iran’s ministry of Intelligence, from April up to November 2016, I was victim of all the mentioned above illegal and anti-human right actions done by the investigators. In addition, they threatened me that they will harm my two young children if I do not obey them. Therefore, I was forced to falsely repeat baseless and groundless lies of what they wanted me to say. However, all I mentioned in my forced confessions was the problem that occurred to me in the spring of 2010, when some people asked me to answer some questions regarding and old research project in Iran. This event of spring of 2010 occurred in Europe. I clearly have expressed during the past 22 months that regardless of the circumstances, I have never ever confessed to being a spy of Mossad or any other Intelligence Ministries, and I have never ever confessed to transferring information of the two Iranian Nuclear scientists, Dr. Ali Mohammadi and Dr. Shahriari. I have never ever confessed to being involved in the assassination process of these scientists. All blames regarding my confessions are lies and baseless, and in fact come just from the lack of evidence and documents to prove their wrong and false accusations against me. Consistent to these lies, the ministry of intelligence broadcasted and montaged a movie against me two months ago, to fool the people and judicial officials of Iran into believing their lies. Even in that movie, there were no confessions by me of being a spy or having a relationship with the assassination of the nuclear scientists. This was why the Ministry of Intelligence had to use a narrating voice in the movie. If I had confessed to being a spy, they could have been able to use my own voice without needing a narrating voice saying baseless lies. This again shows their lack of evidence and documentation. Due to lack of evidence and documents, the investigator exonerated me from the accusations in November 2016, but unfortunately the judge of my trial, Mr. Salavati, relied on the false and baseless report of the investigators and convicted me with a death sentence, which is fully rejected from legal and Islamic aspects.
- To refuse the false accusation of being a spy for Mossad, there are multiply documents and reasons as the ones below:
- Affiliation of the approachers in Europe to Mossad is claimed by the Ministry of Intelligence without providing any supportive documents. I knew them as researchers working for a disaster management company and I did not know their latent identities and objectives. As soon as I was informed about their request, I replied NO, and I never cooperated with them. Neutrally, in the evaluation of my judicial file documents will come from that I have always refused being a spy for Mossad or any other intelligence ministries or services during the investigation processes. For being a spy and spying, a person must have access to classified data, which I have not had any access to since 2002. It is why I easily terminated my contract with the ministry of defense in 2003, and then without being prohibited to leave the country, I have multiple trips abroad and finally immigrated to Sweden for PHD studies in 2009. Unfortunately the research center affiliated to the Ministry of Defense in September 2016, 4 months after my arrest, falsely claimed that Djalali has access to classified data, but this center was not able to show any examples of the claimed data. Also, there were not able to present a letter by which I must be informed about the classified data. As a surprising issue, the security of the center that is responsible for the security of the classified data, is not aware of which type of projects and data I was working with. All these reasons approve that all the claims against me are false and fabricated by the ministry of intelligence.
- Another point is that in Iran, the ministry of defense and other sensitive organizations never allow a person who is living abroad to have access to classified projects and data. It is why the inspector refused the claim of the ministry of defense and limited the validity of the claim just to 2002. However, the investigators forced the deputy prosecutor to insert the mentioned letter in the bill of indictment. All claimed data have already been published on the internet since 14 years, from which I would print around 300 pages and gave them to the judge to prove that this data has already been published and is unclassified worldwide. Also, I asked the judge to summon a relevant expert to evaluate and give proof on the data’s conditions, but Salavati the judge neither summoned an expert nor mentioned the existence of such publicly published data and document in the verdict. These acts approve not only that judge Salavati was not a neutral and fair judge, but also had planned to convict me with the death sentence in advance. Everybody knows that judge Salavati is nominated as a “human right law breaker” by United Nation’s human right commission since some years ago because he always is bias when sacrificing people like me and is in favor of the ministry of intelligence and similar officials.
- As a paradox between the blames and real activities within the past years, in the verdict there is a list of my works and projects since 2003 till 2016. All my 15 projects are completely unclassified and in the field of disaster medicine and crisis management. As unclassified projects, hundreds of medical staff from all around Iran have been involved in these projects. If Salavati would ask the investigators to present formal documents and evidence with regard to their claims that these projects are classified, I would be certainly exonerated from the accusations since there is no proof for their claims.
- To refuse the wrong and fabricated accusations about the relation between me and the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientists, the items below are expressed:
- This accusation was not discussed neither during the investigation nor during the interrogation phases. Nobody asked me any questions about a possible relation between me and this claim. Therefore, it was not in the list of accusations against me, but after some months this accusation suddenly occurred in the indictment bill and then without any investigations over the trial, the blame was unfairly inserted into the verdict. This claim is a clear example of falsification and fabrication in my judicial file.
- If I had confessed for transferring the information of two nuclear scientists to foreigners, and/or having a relation with their assassination or if there were any documents or evidences against me, the inspector after 7 months working on my case would not exonerate me from this accusation and lie. It is why the investigator had to ask the deputy prosecutor to refuse the inspectors decision, and himself added this lie and baseless accusation to the bill of indictment without any arguments backing it up.
- As an undeniable evidence, Dr. Ali Mohammadi was killed in January 2010, while the people in Europe approached me in spring of 2010. Indeed there is a 3 to 4 months gap between the two events. Fortunately this fact was shown in the movie that they broadcasted by the ministry of intelligence against me in Iranian national TV. The question is how can I be involved in the assassination of a person who has been killed 4 months before the claimed date I am being accused of? Why should I falsely confess to an event that has happened in advance? If there are confessions, they are done either under torture or the investigators have falsified it themselves. The Ministry of Intelligence is not able to express the claimed confessions as public documents, my own voice or written documents should be shown instead of a narrating voice or other types of fabrications.
- As a surprise there is a paragraph in my verdict which clearly rejects the blames against me. It explores that the only probable conversation between me and the approachers includes two important points: First is my negative answer to the request of the people approaching and the second is the condemnation of the assassination of the two Iranian scientists, Dr. Ali Mohammadi and Dr. Shahriari by the approaches to show that they are totally away from the assassination that has already happened. On the basis of this paragraph, any neutral sided person insures that the assassination has happened before I was approached, thus there are no relations between me and these crimes.
- Another undeniable document that is present in the verdict is a letter from the security official to the inspector in September 2016, in which the security officials mention the possible damage created by me, Ahmadreza Djalali, to the country. In this letter, nothing is mentioned about the possible relation between me and the assassination of the two scientists, and/or transferring information about the two scientists. The date of this letter is four months after I was arrested and the security official could easily accuse me of the assassination if there was any evidence against me. This letter strongly confirms the falsification and fabrication by the investigators in my judicial file probably after the investigation phase. In this letter, there is also nothing about the other blames such as cyber-attacks, the projects and military or atomic sites.
- Some of high level officials such as the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Dr. Ali Larijani, and the foreign affairs minister, Dr. Zarif, the former secretary of national security supreme court, Dr. Jalili, have clearly said that the cause of assassination of the two nuclear scientists was due to a mistake done by the atomic organization of Iran that uncovered information about the two scientists and allowed the international atomic energy agencies to have interviews with them. Participation of Dr. Ali Mohammadi and Dr. Shahriari in the Sesami seminar in Jordan is also mentioned as another reason of the assassination. These declarations approve that all blames against me are false, lies and fabricated. The Ministry of Intelligence portray me as guilty for the assassination because they want to cover up their mistakes in protecting the scientists.
- President, my only mistake was to trust some people who introduced themselves as researchers belonging to a disaster management company in Europe, but later I discovered that they were looking for medical data of a project in Iran. As soon as I was informed, I not only clearly replied no to them, but also I greatly helped my country through deflating them from their objectives. I did not provide any classified data to them, I did not even have access to such data. I was so scared of their threats against my spouse and young daughter, therefore I did not inform the security staff of Iran. Some months later I was attacked and injured by 3 unknown people, and the only thing that they stole my laptop was stolen, no money or valuable items, meaning they were looking for data in my laptop. When I informed Iranian security staff and also the police, nobody supported me and they called me a person who does not have any classified data to be worried. How could I rely on these people that neither supported me nor briefed me against security threats, since 15 years ago?
Mr. President, the investigators in the lack of documents and evidences, have fabricated and added tens of falsifications and alternations to my judicial file, because of their political, security and financial benefits. They have sent a report full of lies and baseless accusations to the court and called their own opinions as “implicit confessions of Ahmadreza Djalali”. They were informed that I had prepared hundreds of pages of defensive documents to refuse all blames and accusations over the trial, and therefore they forced the court to develop a nonpublic trial. The judge was a human right law breaker, Salavati, who convicted me with the death sentence, just within a total of 3 hours of trial, without paying any attention to my defenses and documents. Regular processes in the Supreme Court take some months or a year for a death sentence case, and usually the verdict is overruled and sent to another court to be reviewed. For my case, the process was super rapid and unusual, and my death sentence was confirmed in a matter of days. The Supreme Court not only did not informed me which office and who will evaluate my verdict, but also did not register my file in the electronic system because they decided to keep the process a secret and not allow me to send a defensive document to the Supreme Court. All these acts are illegal. The third phase in the Supreme Court which is supposed to be totally neutral, was another unfair and bias preplanned show. The judge, without asking for my judicial file to review it before making the decision, rejected my request on overruling the verdict. Surprisingly, the judge in this phase, called my lawyer and asked her to provide a copy of the primary verdict to attach to the rejection letter. It seems very shameful for an Islamic country to treat an accused with such unjustified and unfair manners, it would be a question from the whole world whether the life of a human being is worthless in Iran.
Mr. President, I clearly and loudly declare that I have never confessed, explicitly or implicitly, of being a spy, to transferring data about projects or Iranian nuclear scientists to Mossad or any other intelligence service. I have never been involved or cooperated in the assassination of the two Iranian nuclear scientists. Throughout my whole life, I had met these two scientists just for some minutes in 2002, 8 years before their assassination. If I should be punished for not informing Iranian authorities when I was approached in 2010, based on Islamic punishment law approved by the Iranian parliament, the punishment at most for me is 2 years, not the death sentence. Indeed I am being sacrificed because of political, financial and security objectives of the investigators affiliated to the Ministry of Intelligence.
I sincerely request you to order a team consisting of neutral lawyers and technical experts who are neutral to evaluate the process, the content and the documents of my judicial file, and then please ask them to publish and broadcast their decisions and opinion along with all the documents, evidences and even my confessions and speeches during the investigations, interrogations and the trial sessions. This will clearly show to the people of Iran and all around the world if I am guilty or innocent. Not showing any documents and just referring to verbal lies, wrong blames and baseless accusations, and also broadcasting a movie with a narrating voice is not acceptable for any researchers, scientists, politicians and governments around the world. Sacrificing a scientist who has spent all his life to his country and the people impacted by Iran and all around the world, and also a person who has never accepted to work against peace and trust will damage moral and human right values and the view of Iran in the world.
Thank You so much,
Ahmadreza Djalali.