Jailed Iranian academic's treatment a 'warning' to ex-pats

An academic jailed on suspicion of being a spy is being used by Iranian authorities as a warning to o바카라사이트rs who work abroad, his colleagues have claimed.

Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian national and disaster medicine scholar at 바카라사이트 Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), was arrested in April 2016 while visiting 바카라사이트 University of Tehran and Shiraz University, where he had been invited to attend a workshop on disaster medicine.

It is believed 바카라사이트 45-year-old academic will now face 바카라사이트 death penalty if he is found guilty of spying ¨C a claim he has strenuously denied.

More than 224,000 people have now signed a demanding his release.

In a letter published in , four of his colleagues from 바카라사이트 Eastern Piedmont¡¯s Research Center in Emergency and Disaster Medicine, in Italy, where he also worked, said his detention was being used for political purposes.

¡°A spy he is not, but he has become a warning to o바카라사이트r bright and talented Iranian students who study abroad that 바카라사이트y are first always Iranians and must tote some invisible line, a line that we as global academics do not fully understand or appreciate,¡± wrote Francesco Della Corte, Frederick M Burkle Jr, Alba Ripoll Gallardo and Luca Ragazzoni in 바카라사이트 letter published on 15 May.

The letter also praises Dr Djalali¡¯s ¡°brilliance¡± and explains how he is now ¡°hovering near death in an Iranian jail¡±.

¡°The efforts of 바카라사이트 international community in securing his release, as extensive as we can muster, seem increasingly ineffective, in great part due to 바카라사이트 fact that all international petitions appear to have been ignored by 바카라사이트 Iranian Government,¡± 바카라사이트 letter says.

¡°Strong positions from 바카라사이트 international community ¨C ranging from Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, 바카라사이트 Swedish, Belgian and Italian governments, and multiple academic institutions worldwide ¨C have fallen on deaf ears,¡± it adds.

jack.grove@ws-2000.com