Iran may postpone execution of Swedish-Iranian academic

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran could delay the execution of a Swedish-Iranian academic set to be carried out this month on charges of allegedly spying for the Israeli government, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

Ahmadreza Djalali, an expert in emergency medicine, was arrested during an academic visit to Iran in October 2016 and subsequently sentenced to death the next year on spying charges.

Djalali's lawyers had requested for his sentence to be reviewed, according to Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh.

Khatibzadeh repeated previous claims that Djalali spied for Mossad and said "his situation is absolutely clear … his sentence is definite and the judiciary has announced that. What I said was that there has been a request about the timing of the execution of the sentence, and this is under consideration."

According to Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency, Djalali is accused of the assassination of two nuclear scientists in the country after he allegedly supplied the Mossad (Israeli intelligence) with information about their rival's nuclear program.

Djalali was granted Swedish citizenship in 2018, a decision which ISNA claims was made "in order to put pressure on the Iranian judicial system."

The spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, Zabihollah Khodaian, had confirmed last week that Tehran will go ahead with the execution, ruling out the possibility of a prisoner exchange with an Iranian national who is on trial in Sweden for his role in the execution of around 5,000 political prisoners in 1988.

During a visit by top European Union nuclear negotiator Enrique Mora to Tehran, the envoy called for the release of Djalali, asking "for his release on humanitarian grounds."