Sweden grants citizenship to man accused by Iran of being a Mossad spy
February 19, 2018 1 Comment
The government of Sweden has granted citizenship to an academic who is on death row in Iran for allegedly helping Israel kill Iranian nuclear scientists. Sweden’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed on Saturday that Ahmadreza Djalali, who lives in Sweden and has lectured at Stockholm’s renowned Karolinska Institute, is now a Swedish citizen. IntelNews has covered extensively the case of Dr. Djalali, 45, a professor of disaster medicine who has also taught at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in the Belgian capital, as well as in the VUB’s European Master’s program in Disaster Medicine in Italy.
It is believed that Djalali was arrested in Iran in 2016, during a visit from Sweden, where he has been living for several years. He was sentenced to death last year for allegedly helping Israel assassinate nuclear scientists and sabotage Tehran’s nuclear program. Four Iranian physicists, who were employed in Iran’s nuclear program, are known to have been assassinated between 2010 and 2012. Most were killed by magnetic bombs that were placed on their vehicles by unknown assailants, who were then able to escape on motorcycles. Tehran believes that the assassinations were carried out by the Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, with the help of agents recruited by the Israelis from within Iran’s nuclear program.
The office of Tehran’s public prosecutor claims that Djalali admitted holding “several meetings with the Mossad”, during which he allegedly “provided [the Mossad] with sensitive information about Iran’s military and nuclear installations”. The Iranians further claim that Djalali gave Israel the names and addresses of at least 30 senior members of the country’s nuclear program. The list included nuclear physicists, engineers, as well as intelligence and military officials with nuclear specializations. In return for supplying inside information, the Israelis allegedly helped Djalali secure permanent residency in Sweden and financed his move there. Iran claims that the information given to the Mossad by Djalali resulted in the assassination of at least one Iranian scientist. But in a letter written from prison in Iran, the jailed academic claims that he was sentenced to death after he refused to carry out espionage operations on behalf of the Iranian state.
A spokeswoman for Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday that the Swedish government was aware that Djalali had been granted citizenship by the country’s Migration Board. Consequently, the Ministry was in touch with Iranian authorities and had requested access to the jailed scientist, she said. She added that the Swedish government’s demand was that “the death penalty is not carried out” in the case of Djalali.
► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 19 February 2018 | Permalink
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News you may have missed #895: Africa edition
February 20, 2018 by Ian Allen Leave a comment
►►Somalia appoints new police, intelligence chiefs. The Somali government announced Monday it has appointed new police and intelligence chiefs, nearly four months after their predecessors were sacked following the deadliest ever terror attack in the war-torn nation. Former deputy health minister Hussein Osman Hussein has been named head of Somalia’s intelligence service, while deputy head of police Bashir Abdi Mohamed has been promoted to police chief. Their predecessors were sacked on October 29, a day after an attack that left 27 people dead, and just two weeks after 512 people were murdered in a truck bombing in Mogadishu on October 14.
►►Ethiopia bans protests, media criticism, under state of emergency. The government of Ethiopia has declared a six-month state of emergency that includes a ban on protests and publications deemed to incite violence. The measure was announced on Friday, a day after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced his surprise resignation in a televised speech. In his resignation address, Desalegn said he resigned to “smooth the path for political reform”. But critics say that the purpose of the state of emergency is “not to protect the constitutional order but to silence the voices calling for change”.
► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 20 February 2018 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, Bashir Abdi Mohamed, Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, Hussein Osman Hussein, mercenaries, News, news you may have missed, Riek Machar, Somalia, South Sudan, William John Endley