Journalists’ Lawyer: Three Environmental Organization Officials Accused in Bus Crash
Parto Bahanpour, lawyer representing the families of Mehshad Karimi and Reyhaneh Yasini, two environmental journalists who were killed in a bus crash in West Azerbaijan, announced that in this accident case, the bus driver has been identified as the first defendant, and three officials of the Department of Environment Protection have been identified as secondary defendants.
According to Bahanpour, the officials responsible for coordinating the journalists’ trip to visit Lake Urmia restoration projects—namely the Director General of the West Azerbaijan Environmental Organization, the provincial director of the Lake Urmia Restoration Headquarters, and the head of the Urmia Environmental Office—have been identified as secondary defendants.
She told ISNA news agency on Tuesday, December 30: The charge against these individuals is negligence and dereliction of duty by the trip coordinators, which resulted in the deaths of Mehshad Karimi and Reyhaneh Yasini due to their failure to provide transportation suitable for the road conditions and geography of the region and without coordination with traffic safety officials.
A bus carrying environmental journalists who were heading to visit the “Kani Sib” tunnel crashed on the Urmia-Naghadeh road in June of this year, resulting in the deaths of two journalists and injuries to 18 others.
Mehshad Karimi and Reyhaneh Yasini, environmental journalists for ISNA and IRNA news agencies, are the two journalists who lost their lives in this incident.
In a statement by Iran’s Traffic Police regarding the journalists’ bus, “officials’ negligence in providing suitable transportation and the driver’s unfamiliarity with road conditions” were mentioned as reasons for the accident.
Parto Bahanpour meanwhile suggested that the number of defendants at the West Azerbaijan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office may increase.
Source: Radio Farda
