VUB professor sentenced to death in Iran

A professor at Brussels' Dutch-speaking university VUB has been sentenced to death in Iran for espionage - prompting more than 55,000 people to sign a petition calling for his release.

45-year-old Ahmadreza Djalali, who teaches disaster medicine in Italy and in Brussels, spent seven months in solitary confinement after he was arrested while visiting family in Iran last April.

Family say he has been repeatedly denied access to a lawyer and has now been forced to sign a confession.

"This is an outrageous violation of universal human rights," said VUB rector Caroline Pauwels. "A scientist performing important humanitarian work has been sentenced without public trial and is facing the death penalty."

A petition on Change.org reads: "He has nothing in his mind other than science, helping others and his friends and family.

"We want Ahmadreza to come back to the scientific community, and to his family and friends. He is a loving father, and his children miss him everyday and want him to come back home."