Ahmadreza Djalali’s Wife: My Husband Was “Framed” For Refusing to Spy for Iran
The wife of an Iranian-born Swedish resident sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges has denied new allegations that her husband spied for the Israeli secret service, Mossad.
“My husband was asked if he handed information to Mossad agents and he said no. Yet they have framed him for a crime he did not commit and sentenced him to death. It’s shocking and unfortunate. I don’t know how to respond,” Djalali’s wife, Vida Mehran-nia, told CHRI on December 26.
On December 25, 2017, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi alleged that he met with the defendant, Ahmadreza Djalali, in prison and that Djalali “admitted to meeting with the agents of foreign intelligence services on eight occasions and getting paid for it.”
Speaking at a meeting with deputy prosecutors, Dowlatabadi added: “Djalali handed over information about a number of managers working for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and Defense Ministry to Mossad officers.”
Djalali, an emergency medicine specialist who was arrested during an official visit to Tehran in April 2016, was issued the death penalty for allegedly selling information that led to the assassination of two Iranian scientists working for the country’s nuclear industry in 2010.
He has denied the charges and accused the Intelligence Ministry of arresting him for refusing to spy for Iran from European countries.
Speaking to CHRI over the phone from her home in Sweden where she lives with their two children, Mehran-nia added that during a meeting with Dowlatabadi in Evin Prison on December 20, her husband told the Tehran prosecutor that foreign agents had made eight attempts to seek information from him and that he had rejected them all.
“My husband told the prosecutor he never met with any Mossad agents or any groups tied to Mossad,” she said. “Only some European scientific groups asked him some questions but he never cooperated with them.”
“His only crime is explaining everything honestly,” said Mehran-nia. “They say he received 28,000 Euros over five years for spying. Why would a man with a PhD sell fundamental secrets for such a small amount?”
In his latest comments, the Tehran prosecutor revealed that Djalali’s wife is a former employee of the AEOI.
“I worked for the AEOI for 10 years between 1998 and 2008 as a simple technician in the mineral water analysis division,” Mehran-nia told CHRI.
“When we decided to move abroad in 2008, I took a sabbatical for a year and extended it for three years because we were not sure if we would stay or go back to Iran,” she said.
“There was never a problem with my employment,” she added. “It’s funny that they brought it up now.”
