The UK academies are calling for the immediate halt to the execution of Dr Ahmadreza Djalali
10 May 2022On 11 May, the Royal Society joined the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Irish Academy, the Learned Society of Wales, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh in calling for the immediate halt to the imminent execution of Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish scholar of disaster medicine, who has been sentenced to death in Iran.
Their call, made in a joint letter to His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, follows reports that Dr Djalali’s arrest, conviction and sentencing suggest a flagrant disregard for international standards of academic freedom, due process, fair trail and human treatment of prisoners, as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party.
The case has sparked concern among the international science community, with national science academies and individual researchers from around the world calling for the immediate halt to the execution and to secure the release of the scientist.