‘No more empty statements:’ Iran ex-detainees press Sweden over death row academic

Over 20 foreign nationals who themselves endured years of captivity in Iran on Wednesday urged Sweden to step up efforts to free a Swedish-Iranian citizen sentenced to death in the country, after he had a heart attack last week.Ahmadreza Djalali, an academic who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges he denies, suffered a heart attack in Tehran’s Evin prison, his wife said Friday.Djalali, 53, is among a number of Europeans held by Iran in what some countries including France call a deliberate hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear programme.Djalali’s condition, “worsened by years of medical neglect and psychological torment, is now dire,” said the 21 former detainees including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert and US-Iranian Siamak Namazi, who were freed only after years-long ordeals in prison.”While the Islamic Republic and its heinous practice of hostage diplomacy is the clear culprit here, we are deeply troubled by your government’s failure to use the means at its disposal to rescue Dr Djalali,” they said in the letter addressed to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson via Stockholm’s embassy in Washington.”No more empty statements. Sweden must act with the same urgency and resolve it has shown in securing the freedom of other citizens,” they added in the letter seen by AFP.Djalali was granted Swedish nationality while in jail.- ‘A path home’ -The letter said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had offered a possible way forward in a recent social media post that it said “implicitly linked” the case to Iran’s inability to access treatment for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a disease that affects hundreds of Iranian children and can be fatal without proper care.”The specialised wound dressings required to treat EB, produced by a Swedish company, have long been blocked due to over-compliance with sanctions,” the letter said.In a post on X last week that lamented a “regrettable shift” in bilateral relations, Araghchi said “Sweden ceased non-sanctionable exports of medicines, including specialised and unique gear for children afflicted with EB”.In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. To the disappointment of his family, Djalali was not included in the swap.In the letter, the ex-detainees told Kristersson: “A path to bring Dr Djalali home — alive, not in a coffin — appears within reach. “If Sweden fails to pursue it seriously and this Swedish citizen dies in captivity, history will record that your government had more than one chance to save him — but chose not to. That responsibility will rest squarely with you.”

Sean Combs’s ex Cassie to face defense grilling at second day in court

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former partner Casandra Ventura is expected to be grilled by the fallen music mogul’s defense lawyers Wednesday as she returns to court for a second day of testimony.Singer and model Ventura, better known as Cassie, is also likely to face questions about allegations Combs raped her in 2018, as well as her graphic accounts of elaborate sex parties organized by the hip-hop icon.In an emotional first day of testimony, Ventura, who is heavily pregnant, also detailed beatings and abuse at the hands of Combs whom she painted as controlling and willing to wield his wealth and influence to get his way. She gave vivid accounts that will underpin much of the prosecution’s case against the music industry figure who is alleged to have used violence and blackmail to manipulate women over many years.Ventura recounted so-called “freak-off” sex parties saying she participated because she was “just in love and wanted to make (Combs) happy — to a point I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice.”Ventura, who is 17 years younger than Combs and first met him when she was 19, described how the mogul would sometimes urinate on her, or he would instruct one of the numerous sex workers he engaged to do so. – ‘It was disgusting’ -The escorts, almost always men, were paid thousands of dollars in cash after encounters.”It was disgusting. It was too much. It was overwhelming,” she said, adding that the hotel rooms used for the marathon sex sessions were often trashed, with establishments charging sizable cleaning and repair bills including for sheets stained with blood and urine.Combs’s defense team indicated that during cross-examination, which is expected as early as Wednesday afternoon, they would seek to emphasize that Ventura took drugs of her own free will, and behaved erratically.Ventura said that during the encounters she took drugs including ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine, and that the “drugs honestly helped” her meet Combs’s demands to stay awake for days on end.The drugs also had a “dissociative and numbing” effect, she said, “a way to not feel it for what it really was.”In a hotel surveillance clip from March 2016 shown to jurors Monday and again Tuesday, Combs is seen brutally beating and dragging Ventura down a hallway.The prosecution played portions of the footage while Ventura was on the stand.When asked why she didn’t fight back or get up, Ventura answered simply that curled up on the ground “felt like the safest place to be.” Combs’s defense team insists while some of his behavior was questionable it did not constitute racketeering and sex trafficking. He denies all counts and proceedings are expected to last eight to 10 weeks.