Dr. Djalali, a physician and academician in Emergency and Disaster Medicine, has written to Mohammad-Javad Larijani requesting that he review his case, review all of the documents presented, meet with the defense witnesses and withdraw the charge of “Seditious on Ground,” and remove the death penalty that was handed down by Judge Salavati. The letter sent to Dr. Larijani follows:
To the International Deputy for Chief Justice, Secretary of High Council for Human Rights
Dr. Mohammad-Javad Larijani,
This is Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish Researcher and lecturer affiliated to UPO, VUB and KI universities in Europe. In April of 2016, I was arrested by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and then through an illegal, unjust, non-Islamic and anti-human rights process, I was sentenced to be executed as a seditious on ground. During the past two years, I, and my family, have sent more than 10 letters to you explaining my situation and asking for your intervention in this catastrophe. I have never received a reply from you. When I heard your speech at the UNHR council meeting in Geneva, March 12, 2018, you said “in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the death sentence is given to ones who have done extensive violence and significant crime. Their trials have taken a couple of years and are developed on the basis of law.” I decided to send another letter to you. This time I am hoping you will take my case under consideration and support me. I had to face a group of law violators who don’t respect any laws, Islamic principles, ethical principles or human rights principles, and just think of their own objectives and benefits. Referring to this letter and the result of actions from my request to the UNHR council and the EUHR commission, will certainly be considered as an example of human rights performance of Islamic Republic of Iran.
Doctor Larijani, I was detained after almost 20 years of high level scientific services to Iran. I was kept in solitary confinement for 3 months and not allowed to meet anybody, not even the inspector. Besides this, I was denied access to a lawyer for 6 months. As you know, all these actions are fully against the constitution, judiciary rules, Islamic punishment laws and also human rights principals. Furthermore, during that period of time, I was subjected to physical and psychological torture and harm, threatened with execution, and threatened that my little children would be harmed. I was also lied to by the investigators who swore that I would be released very soon if I followed their orders. In my condition of deep depression, fear and hopelessness, I was forced to transcribe dictated thoughts and ideas of the investigators fabricated in a formulated structure for all of my confessions. They told me that this transcript would be a strong document to show that I fully regret any fault but that I would be portrayed as someone who is completely honest and cooperative with the investigators, and also that huge effective help was provided by me to the Ministry of Intelligence. They told me that this transcript that they provided to me would allow them to have a strong reason to free me immediately and let me return to my normal life and continue my academic career. Despite my honesty, trust in the investigators and fully obeying their request regarding the dictated content, I found myself caught in an unfair and unethical plan of the investigators which was to present an innocent academician as a criminal. This would provide them an opportunity to explain why they were not able to protect an important project of the country and the relevant scientists who were involved in it, 13 to 14 years ago. In fact, by misusing my background and the event that happened to me in 2010 in Europe when the approachers contacted me and asked me for medical data about an old project. The investigators planned to sacrifice me to fill the political and security gaps in their system. Surprisingly, they were not satisfied with these false fabrications, and therefore, they added further tens of falsified and altered items to my judicial file, and accused me of a list of impossible and false subjects. In addition, they added some negative comments on the content that they forced me to transcribe. They wrote “although Djalali has said this, we think he has lied and the truth is that….”. Finally, the Minister of Intelligence, without any documents or valuable reasons, asked the inspector to request the death sentence for me. However, the inspector, after 7 months search and evaluation with reference to law for reasons and due to lack of documents and evidence, rejected the investigator’s request and exonerated me from clause 286 of the Islamic punishment law and possible death sentence. The inspector had written in my judicial file that “Djalali has not done any extensive or destructive actions against the national security, and has not induced any physical or life damage of people.” After this, the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence talked to a deputy of Tehran’s prosecutor and, after 40 days, made him state a bill of indictment addressing clause 286, by which I was recognized as a seditious on ground who must be executed. The case was handed over to Judge Salavati, a judge who has been identified as a human rights violator by the UN and EU over the last decade. Salavati asked me to remove my attorney and replace her with one which would be determined by the judicial power. I replied “No, “ so he sent me from Evin Prison back to the detention halls of section 209, which belongs to the Ministry of Intelligence. For over 65 days I was on a hunger strike. I was kept in the worst physical condition. There were 4 people in a 7 square meter room, very cold and dirty, without clean water, no access to a bathroom – except 3 to 4 times per day. Finally, they had to return me to Evin prison because of my poor health conditions. However, Judge Salavati postponed my trial for 7 months, and scheduled it after 18 months of detention. He did not allow my attorney to attend my trial sessions, and therefore I needed to have another lawyer who was acceptable to Judge Salavati. Contrary to the Islamic Punishment law, Salavati did not consider the fact that I was under torture and threats, and that I was constantly lied to through the investigation periods and that all transcriptions were dictated by the investigators, as well as tens of alternations and fabrications that were made in my statements and which are wrongly called “Djalali’s confessions”. Salavati did not take my defense proposal and the other relevant 300 pages of documents under consideration. He also did not take my request to summon the witnesses and technical experts, and instead in an opposite manner, he only referred to the false report prepared by the Ministry of Intelligence. He made a copy of the false report made by the Ministry of Intelligence as the verdict in order to give a me a death sentence. Surprisingly, there are numerous items in the verdict that I have never been asked about throughout the judiciary process, which are fabricated by the investigators and Judge Salavati.
Doctor Larijani, contrary to your speech in Geneva, my trial was not done through an exact and long-term process. It took a total of 3 hours for me to be given the death sentence in an unfair and inhuman process. The next phase – in the Supreme Court – also took only a few days through a secret and abnormal process. Neither I nor my attorney were informed how, where and when the primary verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court. How was it possible for two ordinary judges, Ehsan Mansouri and Olamhossein Zate-ajam to read almost 1000 pages of technical documents, including 300 pages of English papers. Besides, they did not care about many judicial violations of rules in my case. My second appeal to the higher level of the Supreme Court was also refused by Judge Niazi, who did not even view my life valuable enough to at least ask for files and relevant documents and spend his time to review these documents. Without any respect to the law, he unfairly rejected my appeal and asked my attorney if he would provide a copy of the verdict to him to be attached to the refusal letter, refusing my appeal request, saying my sentence cannot be changed, and confirmed my death sentence.
Doctor Larijani, I explained just a part of the illegal and anti-human rights actions carried out against me, an international academician who, through the whole process of reviewing the death sentence, took less than 3 months and in fact was all simulated on paper and not in reality. The defensive documents and evidences, as well as the inspector’s decision by what he exonerated me from the clause 286, were easily missed, and the Ministry of Intelligence and the prosecution officials instead of presenting physical documents to approve and show the validity of the unfair and inhuman death sentence, they had to lie and repeat wrong and false quotations – saying that I had confessed. However, all right-minded people you, the prosecutor, Salavati and other judges, the inspector, the investigators and even all Iranian officials know and are sure that the accusations against me are lies made to fill political and security gaps. Although all my explanations over the investigation period were under torture and inhuman conditions, I still have never confessed to being a spy, transferring the information of nuclear scientists, acting against national security or any similar confessions. This is why the Ministry of Intelligence was not able to present any claimed confessions of me (claiming to being for example a spy involved in the assassination, etc.) over the broadcasted movie, which itself includes plenty of montages, alteration of the video tape and also a narrating voice added just to lure officials and people into believing I am guilty.
Dr. Larijani, referencing to all illegal, unfair, inhuman, anti-Islamic and anti-human rights actions which have been done against me in the past two years, currently I am asking you, as the Secretary of the Human Right Committee of Iran’s judicial power, to take my case under consideration and repair my most missed and most basic legal and human rights. If you request the overruling of the illegal, inhuman and anti-Islamic death sentence, it will show and confirm the fact to all people and human rights organizations around the world that you are a real and honest supporter and protector of human rights, especially from an Islamic and God lined perspective. In this case, all human right organizations, universities, academicians and people of Iran, EU and non-EU countries will support and respect your humanitarian and Islamic actions, which will certainly have a great impact on the conditions of human rights of Iran in the UNHR council and also EUHR commission.
Yours,
Ahmadreza Djalali.
For information of other international officials, I give a copy of this letter to the coordinator of UNHR, the coordinator of EUHR commission and the Head of Amnesty International.