The signatories of the letter describe themselves as former hostages in Iran, and they are of different nationalities. In the letter, which TT has taken part of, they draw attention to a post that Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X last week.
A few days after researcher Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been imprisoned in Iran for over nine years, suffered a heart attack, Araghchi linked his case to Swedish politics.
One question that Araghchi raised was that Sweden, since sanctions were imposed on Iran, stopped exporting Swedish-produced wound dressings used to treat the skin disease EB (epidermolysis bullosa, also called butterfly disease).
Welcome solution
"This moment offers a rare chance for dual humanitarian efforts", the former prisoners write in the letter and urge Sweden to resolve the sanction-related obstacles blocking the export of dressings.
The letter writers, who all sat in Evin Prison where Djalali has been imprisoned since 2016, interpret Araghchi's statement as not only feasible but also welcome.
Exchanging a prisoner for medical equipment could, according to the letter, also serve as a model for other European countries whose citizens have been arbitrarily detained in Iran.
Floderus signed
TT has asked Ulf Kristersson and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) how they stand on the letter writers' proposal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responds that Stenergard does not want to go into details about the government's work on Djalali's case, as this "risks worsening his situation”.
Among those who have signed the letter are, among others, Swedish Johan Floderus, who was released in a highly publicized prisoner swap with Iran in the summer of 2024.
Ahmadreza Djalali is a doctor and researcher in disaster medicine. He defended his dissertation at the Karolinska Institute in 2012.
In 2016, he was arrested in Iran, where he had traveled to participate in a seminar on disaster medicine. He has since been sentenced to death for espionage charges that he has always denied.
Djalali became a Swedish citizen in 2018.
But when Sweden carried out a prisoner exchange with Iran in 2024, to bring home Swedish citizens in exchange for the Iranian Hamid Noury, who was sentenced to life in Sweden, Djalali was left. According to the Swedish government, Iran did not even want to discuss his case in the negotiations.
During the more than nine years he has been sitting in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, his health has deteriorated severely. Earlier in May, he suffered a heart attack.
