"Our concern over the plight of researcher Ahmadreza Djalali increases with each passing day. Once again, I have urged the Iranian head of state to release him from custody immediately," reported the President of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), Prof Dr Horst Hippler today in Berlin. "We will not stop fighting for the life and freedom of Dr Djalali. We are doing this not only for him and his family, but also for international academic freedom and in the name of academic cooperation, particularly between Germany and Iran."
According to Scholars at Risk, the international network for the protection of at-risk researchers, Dr Djalali is critically ill in custody. The researcher, who lives in Sweden, was arrested while attending a conference in Tehran and sentenced to death on a charge of "corruption on earth" (ifsad fil-arz) in October of last year. In February 2018, Iran's highest court rejected an application to review the death sentence.
"Academic relations with Iran can only exist on the basis of academic freedom and human rights," says Hippler. The HRK is supporting the urgent call by Scholars at Risk to send letters of support for Ahmadreza Djalali to the Iranian Government (link:).
The HRK President himself has already made several appeals to the Iranian Government to release Ahmadreza Djalali.
According to the HRK database of international university partnerships, German universities are involved in 70 partnerships with Iranian partners.
