The death sentence of Swedish-Iranian national Ahmadreza Djalali is on the agenda and will be carried out, Iran's judiciary spokesperson Zabihollah Khodaian said on Tuesday, without giving a date as to when the execution will take place.
Last week, Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the Iranian-Swedish researcher, sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel, will be executed by May 21.
The announcement came shortly before the trial of Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prosecution official arrested by Swedish authorities in 2019, ended in Stockholm. A verdict has yet to be announced.
If found guilty, Noury faces a maximum life sentence on charges of international war crimes and human rights abuses.
Noury is accused of playing a leading role in the killing of political prisoners executed on government orders at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988. Amnesty International has put the number executed at some 5,000, saying in a 2018 report that "the real number could be higher."
Under Swedish law, courts can try Swedish citizens and other nationals for crimes against international law committed abroad.
On May 2, Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Swedish envoy to protest "the baseless and fabricated accusations that the Swedish prosecutor made against Iran during Noury's court case," Iranian media reported earlier.