Justice for Dr Ahmadreza Djalali
In 2018/19, Nottingham Students for Scholars at Risk (SAR) campaigned for the release of Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, who is currently detained in Iran.
Over the course of the 2018/19 academic year, the SAR student advocacy group ran a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the case that they chose to represent.
Dr Ahmadreza Djalali
Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali is a medical doctor and researcher in disaster medicine who teaches at universities in Italy and Belgium. He is an Iranian-born resident of Sweden.
During a visit to Iran in April 2016 for academic workshops, Dr. Djalali was arrested for alleged "collaboration with hostile governments" and "acting against national security". He was convicted and sentenced to death on October 21, 2017, on a charge of “corruption on earth”.
Take action for Dr Ahmadreza Djalali
The charge against Dr. Djalali reportedly relates to allegations that he had provided intelligence to Israeli authorities. The government has provided no evidence to support the allegations, and Dr. Djalali has disputed them. He believes that his ties to the international academic community are the bases for his prosecution. He has also stated that his forced "confessions" were made under torture and ill-treatment.
Since his arrest, Dr. Djalali's health has rapidly deteriorated due to denied medical care. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has deemed his detention arbitrary, urging the Iranian government to release him immedately and provide him with an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.
Human rights organisations have raised concerns that Dr. Djalali is being held as leverage for potential exchanges involving Iranian officials facing prosecution abroad, putting him at grave risk of retaliatory execution.
Submission to the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review
In April 2019, Scholars at Risk (SAR), in collaboration with the Human Rights Law Centre, filed a submission to the Third Cycle of Universal Periodic Review of the Islamic Republic of Iran, highlighting concerning developments impacting higher education in Iran. Nottingham staff and students contributed significantly to the research and drafting process.
Drawing on data collected by SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project between October 2014 and March 2019, the submission identifies several key trends, including:
- Wrongful prosecution and imprisonment of academics as reprisals for their scholarly work or peaceful exercise of the right to free expression, exemplified by cases such as Dr. Djalali's;
- Imposition of restrictions on student expression, manifested through violent interventions, arrests, prosecutions, and administrative and disciplinary proceedings; and
- Systemic discrimination against members of the Baha’i faith within higher education, evidence by both administrative measures and criminal penalties.
The submission urges UN Member States to call on Iranian authorities to publicly affirm their commitment to academic freedom and related human rights by:
- unconditionally releasing scholars and students held for nonviolent academic activity, expression, association, or religious identity, and refraining from future arrest and prosecution of such scholars and students;
- revising national statutes, decrees and practices to comply with international standards relating to academic freedom, free expression, and freedom of association;
- repealing policies that discriminate against minorities, including the Baha’i community, in higher education; and
- publicly endorsing the Principles of State Responsibility to Protect Higher Education from Attack.
Read the full submission