The doctor and researcher Ahmadreza Djalali remains in an Iranian prison, where he has been since 2016. He was not included in the prisoner exchange at the weekend. His wife Vida Mehrannia has still not been able to meet the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister, she tells TT.
I haven't spoken to Billström or Kristersson. I waited here on Saturday for eight hours and a secretary came out and said that neither of them had time. I was here yesterday and today too and asked for a meeting, says Mehrannia.
She is standing outside the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm, where she will protest daily.
I need to get a straight answer, not what I've been getting all the time about them following his case. I need to know why he was left behind. It's a big question mark for me, she says and recounts that she had a meeting with the Foreign Minister last year and suggested an exchange with Noury.
But they said no to that. And now they've made such an exchange with two others.
Kristersson: Did everything
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has repeatedly said that they tried to get Djalali included in the exchange but it didn't work out.
We did everything we could and we absolutely didn't abandon him, he said to TV4 on Monday morning.
Vida Mehrannia doesn't think the government has made enough of an effort. She rejects the Prime Minister's explanation that Iran didn't want to discuss Ahmadreza Djalali. Two exiled Iranians come forward and say they believe it's Iran that has dictated the terms – and that two innocent people taken as hostages shouldn't correspond to "a convicted murderer".
"My heart is bleeding"
I want to get a meeting with Ulf Kristersson and for him to look me and my children in the eye and explain why they left Ahmadreza behind. Why didn't we get the same treatment from the Swedish government? says Vida Mehrannia.
Now she has no hope left, but will still continue to try to get her husband released.
I've fought for eight years and wish he was on the plane with the others. It's painful, my heart is bleeding that he's not with them.
