Lets be clear

[Shapur Zol Aktaf]

Tehran University Invite Lands Iranian-Swedish Disaster Medicine Expert in Jail

Ahmadreza Jalali, an Iranian-born Swedish resident and expert in emergency disaster medicine who has been detained in Evin Prison without trial since April 24, 2016, is prepared to “die” on hunger strike rather than be executed, his wife told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Jalali was arrested by the Intelligence Ministry while visiting the Iranian capital after being officially invited by Tehran University.

“Ahmadreza had always traveled to Iran by invitation of state organizations, including the Red Crescent, and never experienced any problems before,” said Vida Mehran-nia, adding that her husband has been charged with “collaborating with enemy states.”

“With his (expertise in emergency disaster medicine), Ahmadreza worked hard for Iran for 19 years and always tried to establish scientific cooperation between Iran and other countries… He doesn’t deserve the way he’s being treated,” she continued. “Don’t allow [the interrogators] to decide the fate of my husband and his family. It’s not just Ahmadreza’s life that is at stake. His arrest is affecting my life and my children’s, too. Since his detention, our life has been shattered.”

“We kept silent after his arrest because we thought there had been some mistake or misunderstanding, and that he would be acquitted and released,” she said. “For seven months, he was denied access to a lawyer. After he was transferred to a public ward, he was permitted legal council, but his lawyer told us he cannot talk about the case because it involves national security.”

Jalali was held in solitary confinement at Evin Prison’s Ward 209, controlled by the Intelligence Ministry, and interrogated for seven months before being transferred to the public Ward 7, according to Mehran-nia.

“There’s no evidence against my husband,” she added.

Mehran-nia told the Campaign that her husband began his hunger strike on December 25, the day his interrogators told him he would receive the maximum punishment.

“Previously, they had told him that his case had been reviewed and his trial would start soon. But they put him under so much psychological pressure that he decided to start a hunger strike on the same day,” she added.

A non-practicing general medicine physician who will turn 46 on January 14, Jalali lives in Sweden with his wife and two children. He has a post-doctorate degree in emergency and disaster medicine and computer science applied to medical practice from the University of Eastern Piedmont, Novara, Italy.

Dual Nationals Used as Political Playing Cards

Before and after his presidential election in 2013, Hassan Rouhani repeatedly pledged to facilitate the return of educated expatriate citizens to Iran. Article 48 of his recently launched Charter on Citizens Rights also states: “It is a right of every citizen to have freedom of movement inside the country, to exit Iran and to enter Iran, save where this right has been restricted by law.”

However, since 2014 in particular, elements of Iran’s intelligence and security establishment, including the hardline Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards, have detained Iranians with dual citizenship or foreign residency status and charged them with “collaborating with enemy states,” an indirect reference to the U.S. and other Western governments.

The Campaign for Human Rights in Iran calls for the immediate release of Ahmadreza Jalali, as well as the other foreign residents and dual nationals held in Iran in a growing string of imprisonments lacking any legal legitimacy.

Iranian-British dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, held since April 2016, has been sentenced to five years in prison; Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, held since October 15, 2015 and his father, 80-year-old Bagher Namazi, held since February 2016, have both been sentenced to ten years in prison; Kamal Foroughi, a 77-year-old Iranian-British man held since May 2011, has been sentenced to eight years in prison; Iranian-American Robin (Reza) Shahini, held since July 2016, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison; and Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese-born U.S. permanent resident, held since September 2015, has been sentenced to ten years in prison.

*This article was revised to specify that Ahmadreza Jalali is an expert in emergency medicine, on Jan. 12, 2017 at 5:33 p.m.

https://www.iranhumanrights.org/201...anian-swedish-disaster-relief-expert-in-jail/

 

[Shapur Zol Aktaf]

Different websites have reported this news, but I would like to know what's this story about? could someone from within Iran clarify?

 

[mohsen]

Certainly we don't arresst someone for being a disaster medicine expert.

Maybe CIA could elaborate more on his real missions!

 

[haman10]

Shapur jan we are like you and we have no inside info....
what I know is that VEVAK is pretty darn good at their job. The result of which is apparent as our women can get out 3 in the morning and their families are not worried about their security. Sth which is not the case in most parts of US.

They have a hard job and they have no time to play around with a "medical expert" unless he threatened national security.

So execute him for all i care. Traitors have no place in my heart

 

[Shapur Zol Aktaf]

Shapur jan we are like you and we have no inside info....
what I know is that VEVAK is pretty darn good at their job. The result of which is apparent as our women can get out 3 in the morning and their families are not worried about their security. Sth which is not the case in most parts of US.

They have a hard job and they have no time to play around with a "medical expert" unless he threatened national security.

So execute him for all i care. Traitors have no place in my heart

Haman jan it's good to have security Iran, but we should not scare our expatriates. I'm not talking about this case but lets be realistic, there have been nonsense arrests and in some cases deaths of innocents within Iran by the authorities, so it's also possible that this happens to Iranian expats who return to Iran.

Corruption in Iran by some families/groups within judiciary system or government is not something that we are not aware of, it's not rare, we're no sweden or finland. I hope some bright minds who truely care and love Iran above everything and anything else will eventually change this situation. We rank 130th in corruption index (from 167 countries). With these rankings and way of governing the country our economy will not become greater than the enemies economy and false pride and keeping our heads in sand will end very expensive for us.

The knowledge of our expats, let alone our great minds in Iran, is way more worth than our oil.
Look at the facts:

• According to Census 2000, 50.9 percent of Iranian immigrants have attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 28.0 percent national average.
• According to the latest census data available, more than one in four Iranian-Americans holds a master's or doctoral degree, the highest rate among 67 ethnic groups studied.
• Their combined net worth is $1.3 trillion (2006 est.)In 2000, the Iran Press Service reported that Iranian expatriates had invested between $200 and $400 billion in the United States, Europe, and China, but almost nothing in Iran.
  
• According to a preliminary list compiled by ISG, there are more than 500 Iranian-American professors teaching and doing research at top-ranked U.S. universities
  
  Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/...0113191603atarukp0.6147425.html#ixzz4XdBwazJ8

These are some old statistics, meanwhile Iranian diaspora has progressed further. We should have a special ministry and minister for expatriates, one that only and purely is made with purpose of extracting benefit from the Iranians abroad.

But we clearly lack vision and nationalism is kufr and invention of some evil bad people. Meanwhile we have a sober/moderate growth and we jump in air for achieving 25% of our potential. We brag about it, we publish the results. We take pride in being average. Well why should we be energetic, enthusiastic, akherat is the most important thing. Alhamdollelah, we just survive and that's what matters!

We love our founding fathers Zarathustra, Cyrus the great, Ardeshir-e-babakan (the unifier), but they're not worth to be mentioned in our calendar to have a day to be remembered. No statues. No energy is given to our identity from our own sources, you know some hate them. Lets be honest, they were bunch of animals accoridng to leader. Khomeini called anushirwan-e-adel/dadgar as anushirwane jahel. Lets not fool ourself further brothers. When we face war, and it could be anytime, we need to have our symbols, Heros, identity to unite and to rally around it.

And when there is a policy which is bad, we jump to defend it, because we can't lose face in front of foreigners, it's better to hide it and to defend it instead of critisizing our mistakes and preventing them from happening again.
And then we go even a step further, we curb the sad reality to adjust it to our own wishes, dreams and visions about our country. We take poison, we add some sugar and colour to it and then it tastes so fine. We lie to ourselves to keep ourself happy.

It's only because of our Iranian culture and Iranian background that we still have progress in this visionless mismanaged environment in Iran. Other countries would fail, look around you. It's only the Iranian people and country which keep my hope alive.

 

[SOHEIL]

He is a traitor ...

 

[Arminkh]

He is a traitor ...

What did he do? Do you know?

 

[WordsMatter]

A succinct analysis by Shireen Hunter:

Instead of focusing on Iran’s interests as a country and nation, the Islamic Republic has pursued a policy shaped by a warped version of Islamic universalism. Ironically, Iran is not accepted in the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim world as truly Muslim. Over the years, it has spent billions of dollars on Syria, which is Sunni-majority but Alawite-dominated, including shipments of cheap oil. It has also supported various Palestinian groups that every time have turned against it, as when Arafat supported Saddam Hussein’s 1980 invasion of Iran, and more recently Hamas, which has backed Saudi Arabia’s role in Syria. By picking an unnecessary fight with Israel, Iran has actually brought Israelis and some Arabs closer together.

Iran’s dispute with Israel has been the main reason for its troubled relations with America and Europe and to some extent even Russia and China. As long as Iran does not reach a modus vivendi with Israel, as it had in pre-Islamic Revolutionary times, it cannot expect normal relations with other countries. The threat of some form of military action, by the United States and/or Israel, will remain. In October 2016, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel urged Iran “to improve its relationship with Israel if it wanted to establish closer economic ties with Germany and other western powers.”

Meanwhile, all of Iran’s neighbors, big and small, have taken advantage of the country’s international isolation in every possible way. For instance, though it boasts that it will not bow to America, Iran remained silent when tiny Turkmenistan cut gas supplies to the country during the current tough winter. A government that so often talks about Iran’s honor, pride, and dignity does not seem bothered by these insults and slights and many others like them. But it considers even talking to America against its national dignity.

Iran has paid a huge price for its distorted set of priorities and for privileging religion over national interests, including economic advancement. In fact, since the revolution, Iran has lost decades of economic development, not to mention the losses caused by the eight-year war with Iraq (1980-88). There have also been costs associated with sanctions, rampant corruption, and managerial deficiencies. Even the country’s birth rate has become negative, reflecting its people’s low expectation of future possibilities. Iran is facing both an environmental and a demographic disaster.

The Trump administration’s policies now confront the Islamic Republic and its leaders with a stark choice: either to give priority to protecting Iran’s survival as a country, nation, and culture or to risk sacrificing it on the altar of some vague notion of Islamic universalism and anti-imperialist struggle. Unfortunately, some in Iran would willingly sacrifice Iran to bring about a cataclysmic denouement in the Middle East. A US-Iranian confrontation that might even lead to open conflict might provide just such an opportunity.