Academic blasts Swedish PM after missing out on prisoner swap

Iranian-Swedish Ahmad Reza Jalali, an academic who has been on death row in Iran for eight years, attacked Sweden's prime minister after being excluded from a prisoner swap, in an audio recording obtained by AFP Wednesday.

Two Swedes were released on Saturday in exchange for Hamid Noury, a 63-year-old Iranian former prisons official handed a life sentence in Sweden in 2022 for his role in mass killings in Iranian jails in 1988.

The two Swedes were EU diplomat Johan Floderus, held in Iran since April 2022 accused of espionage, and Iranian-Swede Saeed Azizi, arrested in November.

But Jalali, on death row in Iran since 2017 after having been convicted of espionage, missed out on the swap.

"Mr. Prime Minister, you decided to leave me behind under huge risk of being executed" Jalali said in an audio recording shared with AFP by his wife Vida Mehrannia.

"I talk to you from Evin prison, inside a horrible cave where I have spent eight years, two months, almost 3,000 days of my life," Jalali said.

Directing his message to Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Jalali asked: "Why not me?"

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom has stressed that Stockholm tried to secure his release, but Tehran refused to discuss his case as it does not recognise dual nationality.

He was granted Swedish citizenship while in jail in Iran.

"It's just excuses," Mehrannia told AFP. Her husband's release "wasn't important to them, they didn't want to challenge Iran," she added.

"I'm so angry, I'm at a loss for words."

In his message, Jalali dared Kristersson to meet his son and family in front of tv cameras and tell him "why you left his father behind.

"My son was four when I was detained and he is now 12 and a half years old. He spent two thirds of his life without a father," Jalali said, noting his son had been born in Sweden and grown up among Swedish children.

As a result of the publishing of the recording, Jalali had been denied making calls to Sweden, Mehrannia told AFP.

"But I think it was worth it," she said. "It was important."

Amnesty International has called on Sweden's government to "do everything" to ensure Jalali can return.