Siamak Namazi has a plan. Together with 20 other people from around the world who have been imprisoned in the Evin prison in Iran, the American-Iranian has sent a letter to Sweden's embassy in the USA.
In the letter, addressed to Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, a trade is proposed: Swedish-made wound dressings in exchange for Ahmadreza Djalali. Iran's Foreign Minister has hinted that Sweden's export ban on the dressings may be a reason why they do not want to release the Swedish-Iranian researcher.
The dressings are used to treat the skin disease EB, which involves severe pain and, and if left untreated, can lead to death. Approximately 1,000 Iranians are estimated to suffer from it.
Refusing (this exchange) would come at a high cost for Iran, while Sweden has a lot to gain, says Namazi.
Feeling suicidal
Siamak Namazi is highly critical of Sweden's actions when Djalali was left behind in the prisoner exchange with the Iranian executioner Hamid Noury, who was released from his life sentence in exchange for two other Swedes in Iran in 2024.
Namazi's friendship with Ahmadreza Djalali, whom he was imprisoned with for several years, deepened after he was left behind following an Iranian-Belgian prisoner exchange in 2023. The death-sentenced Djalali, who researched in Belgium, is said to have been considered for inclusion in the exchange but was left behind anyway.
I was worried, because I understand that under those circumstances, it is tempting to take one's life.
Doctor Ahmadreza Djalali has always been the one who helped other prisoners. To make him feel better, Siamak Namazi started pretending to need Djalali's help and asked him to take regular walks with him in the prison yard.
When I wanted to make his eyes light up, I asked about his wife and two children. But he carries a terrible guilt, he feels that he has become a burden to them.
One day, to cheer up Djalali, Siamak Namazi suggested that they fantasize about what they would do if they, carrying their respective wooden sticks, stumbled upon the judge who gave them their sentences in a dark alley.
He just looked at me and replied: "But I am a doctor. If the judge were to have a heart attack in front of me in the prison, I would resuscitate him."
On May 8, Ahmadreza Djalali suffered a heart attack in prison. He has not received access to the treatment he needs.
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 consistently denied. He is reported to have been forced to confess under torture.
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 serving a life sentence in Sweden, he was left behind. According to Sweden's government, Iran did not even want to discuss his case in the negotiations.
During the more than nine years he has spent in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, his health has deteriorated significantly. In May 2025, he suffered a heart attack.
