UniStem Centre at the University of Milan joins the appeal launched by the Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine of the Università del Piemonte Orientale (CRIMEDIM, Italy) to free the Iranian researcher and doctor Ahmadreza Djalali, who worked at CRIMEDIM during the last 4 years and has been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest on 25 April 2016, and now threatened with the death penalty.
Ahmadreza Djalali is a 45-year-old medical doctor, lecturer and researcher in disaster medicine, and has taught in universities in Belgium, Italy and Sweden. He was on a business trip to Iran, having been invited to attend workshops about disaster medicine at universities in Tehran and Shiraz, when he was arrested without a warrant by Ministry of Intelligence officials. His family had no knowledge of his whereabouts until 10 days after his arrest, when he was allowed to call them briefly. He was held in an unknown location for a week before being transferred to Section 209 of Evin prison, under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, where he was held for seven months, three of which were spent in solitary confinement. Ahmadreza Djalali has said that, during this period, he was subjected to intense interrogations and was forced under great emotional and psychological pressure to sign statements, the details of which are unknown to Amnesty International. Despite repeated interrogations, he was not allowed visits from his lawyer until seven months after his arrest, when he was moved to Section Seven of Evin prison.
READ THE COMPLETE APPEAL
What you can do:
1. Please send politely worded letters, if possible on institutional letterhead to the following Iranian authorities. A sample letter is attached.
Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani: info@dadiran.ir (Subject line: FAO) Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Salutation: Your Excellency)
c/o Public Relations Office Number 4, Deadend of 1 Azizi Vali Asr Street, Tehran, Iran
(Salutation: Your Excellency)
Office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei: info_leader@leader.ir
(Salutation: Your Excellency)
Islamic Republic Street- End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Iran;
And copies to:
President Hassan Rouhani, media@rouhani.ir (Salutation: Your Excellency). The Presidency, Pasteur Street, Pasteur Square Tehran, Iran
The Iranian Ambassador in your country
Italian, Belgian and Swedish academic institutions have already taken action through their national authorities and local Iranian Embassies to put in place all needed diplomatic efforts to obtain Dr Djalali release. We encourage colleagues from other countries to establish contacts with their local Iranian Embassy and /or with their national authorities to strengthen our appeal.
2. Friends and colleagues have also launched a petition on Change.org
So far, more than 200,000 people have signed it. Please sign, share and encourage others to sign.
3. Share information and stay connected: On this Facebook page and on Twitter. You can follow updates about the case with #SaveAhmad
FYI, in addition to medical and scientific organizations, Amnesty International has launched an urgent action to advocate for Dr Djalali’s release.
