Sweden – Edelstam Foundation, March 08, 2025
The Edelstam Foundation, Reporters Without Borders and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights express strong support for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ latest statement on Ahmadreza Djalali, the Swedish citizen and Iranian academic who is at risk of execution and whose health condition has seriously deteriorated. We welcome the government’s resolute action to ensure Djalali’s human rights and demand his immediate release and access to medical care.
In this regard, we would like to emphasize the importance of the government acting equally consistently and forcefully in other similar cases where the human rights of Swedish citizens are violated. We are highlighting the cases of Dawit Isaak and Gui Minhai at this time because the government’s clear stance on Ahmadreza Djalali sets an important standard that should also apply to other Swedish citizens whose situations are equally urgent and serious.
The journalist Dawit Isaak has been imprisoned in Eritrea for over 23 years without trial. His situation bears many similarities to Djalali’s and his health is feared to be very poor. The same applies to Gui Minhai, the Swedish publisher who was kidnapped by the Chinese state from his holiday home in Thailand in 2015 and has been imprisoned in China since then. In both cases, there are good reasons to assume that their health is seriously threatened.
