Scholars in peril: when being a scientist can land you in jail (or worse)

Abstract

The scientific community needs to speak up loudly to support colleagues who are persecuted and imprisoned for political reasons.

Amidst the ongoing protests in Iran, a fire broke out at Evin Prison in Tehran on 15 October 2022. The resulting blaze, as well as reported explosions and gun battles between inmates and wardens, killed eight inmates and injured 57 others (https://www.npr.org/2022/10/15/1129322148/iran‐tehran‐evin‐prison‐protests‐fire). A number of organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have presented evidence of human rights abuses at Even Prison where a large number of activists, writers, journalists, and other political prisoners are interned (https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/26/leaked‐videos‐show‐abuses‐behind‐bars‐irans‐prisons; https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/iran‐leaked‐video‐footage‐from‐evin‐prison‐offers‐rare‐glimpse‐of‐cruelty‐against‐prisoners/). As the blazes continued to burn, the world witnessed an outpouring of concern for the safety of journalists and political prisoners. These political prisoners include many scientists, several of whom are currently imprisoned in Evin (Nature, ²⁰²²) and who are in grave peril.

Iranian–Swedish Ahamadreza Djalali, a professor of disaster medicine at the Karolinska Institute, was sentenced to death in 2017 on charges of “espionage,” following his arrest in 2016 while traveling to Iran to attend a conference (Catanzaro, 2020; Devi, ²⁰²²). Earlier this year, the Iranian judiciary announced that they would imminently execute him. This announcement coincided with high‐profile trials of Iranian citizens in both Sweden and Belgium where Djalali is also professionally affiliated, although the Iranian judiciary spokesman has denied any connection (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/10/world/middleeast/iran-execution-ahmadreza-djalali.html). Fariba Adelkhah, and Roland Marchal, both researchers at Science Po, were arrested in Iran in 2019 on national security charges and, in the case of Adelkhah, “propaganda against the Iranian government,” https://www.sciencespo.fr/en/facts‐about‐fariba‐adelkhah). Adelkhah is still imprisoned in Evin as of October 2022, while Marchal was released in 2020 as part of a prisoner exchange deal with France (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/21/iran-frees-french-researcher-under-prisoner-exchange-deal). There are more cases of imprisoned scientists (Nature, ²⁰²²; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/26/iran‐political‐prisoners‐mohsen‐rouholamini) many of whom have not received widespread international media coverage and are thus not well‐known outside the country.

Human Rights Watch and other organizations have accused (https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/26/iran‐targeting‐dual‐citizens‐foreigners) Iran of targeting Iranians with dual citizenship and foreign nationals who have links with Western academic, economic and cultural institutions—not just scientists, but a range of professions (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle‐east/who‐are‐foreign‐nationals‐held‐irans‐evin‐prison‐2022‐10‐17/). These detentions appear to be invariably arbitrary and are arguably akin to political hostage taking as they are frequently used to aid the Iranian government in negotiating prisoner exchanges and other deals with foreign governments (Nature, ²⁰²²). An example of this is the case of British‐Iranian journalist Nazanin Zaghari‐Ratcliffe who was arrested in 2016 on charges of “espionage,” interned at Evin and eventually released earlier this year after the UK government repaid an outstanding debt of £393.8 million on military hardware unrelated to the Zaghari‐Ratcliffe case (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/world/europe/iran‐nazanin‐zaghari‐ratcliffe‐released.html). The actions of Iranian government officials involved in these detentions have been suggested to satisfy the requirements for crimes against humanity (Ferstman & Sharpe, 2022).

Arresting scientists is not unique to Iran: by way of example, Turkish‐American NASA Scientist, Serkan Golge, spent almost 4 years in prison in Turkey on unsubstantiated “terrorism charges” (McTighe, 2019). Persecution and imprisonment of scientists for political motives are also hardly new. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union have both persecuted, imprisoned, and murdered scientists for ideological and political reasons. Other historical examples include the detainment of scientists as political prisoners in Argentina and Uruguay (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/04/28/science‐academy‐sets‐rights‐drive‐on‐8‐in‐prison/bae447e7‐3728‐4fb8‐9643‐96e5e6125ab6/). Since the beginning of this year, Russia has also been jailing scientists on spruced‐up charges of “treason” and “espionage” linked to the invasion of Ukraine, such as Anatoly Maslov, or Dmitry Kolker, the latter of whom died of pancreatic cancer while facing treason charges (Dobrovidova, 2022).

Many scientists and other prominent cultural figures are being held hostage as political pawns purely based on their dual citizenship or international prominence. Many of them are in grave danger for their lives. I have followed most closely the situation in Iran, and the recent fire at Evin again reminded me of the fate of our colleagues behind bars. As a global community, we scientists must not be silent in the face of this injustice. None of us assume that our professional choice is a dangerous one, but far too many are a target of arrest, persecution, and in some cases death simply for being scientists. Apart from the human rights implications, this is likely to have a terrible effect on scholarly pursuits and exchanges inside and with such countries. That is, these politically motivated detentions will inevitably dissuade research and collaborative efforts that require physical presence, as well as severely curtailing both academic and literal freedom of the affected scholars. We must speak up, loudly and jointly as a community, if we want this violence to end.

EMBO reports (2022) 23: e56419