Report: Execution Of Swedish-Iranian National Djalali Scheduled For May 21

Ahmadreza Djalali (left) and Hamid Nouri (combo photo)

A Swedish-Iranian citizen sentenced to death in Iran on charges of spying for Israel is to be executed on May 21, Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency said on May 4.

Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was arrested in Iran in 2016 during an academic visit.

He was accused of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists.

Iran's Supreme Court in 2017 upheld the death sentence. Amnesty International in November urged Tehran to drop all charges against Djalali and release him.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde reacted to ISNA's report on Twitter.

"[Sweden] and [the EU] condemn the death penalty and [demand] that Djalali be released," Linde said. "We have repeatedly stated this to Iranian representatives. We are in contact with Iran."

The ISNA report, which cites unnamed sources, comes as Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian prosecution official arrested by Swedish authorities in 2019, faces a life sentence in Sweden at a trial relating to the mass killings ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1988.

Nouri is charged with international war crimes and human rights abuses in connection with the murders of more than 100 people at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran.

Tehran on May 2 summoned Sweden's ambassador over "baseless and false allegations" made against Nouri.

Under Swedish law, courts can try Swedish citizens and other nationals for crimes against international law committed abroad.

With reporting by Reuters and AP