Behind the Scenes of Environmental Activists’ Arrest; Iran Concerned About Disclosure of Nuclear Sites Information
Iran’s Revolutionary Court has entered preliminary charges against five environmental activists who were arrested in February 2018. These five individuals are accused of using environmental projects as a cover for gathering classified strategic information; an accusation that could result in a death sentence.
The prevailing belief in academic circles is that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps believes these five environmental activists have potentially obtained information from facilities that may be contaminated with radioactive isotopes or lethal chemicals.
To measure atomic radiation and chemical contamination in an area, a person must walk through with a Geiger counter or take soil samples. This may explain the reason for Iranian intelligence officials’ fear in arresting several environmental activists and confiscating their electronic devices in various parts of Iran. The map of arrests provides a good idea of the location of these sensitive sites.
Morad Tahbaz, an American citizen and Columbia University graduate and one of the founders of the “Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation,” is among the environmental activists who is likely to face a death sentence or long-term imprisonment. Members of this foundation had openly opposed the construction of underground nuclear facilities and missile systems on protected lands. The foundation’s director Kavous Seyed Emami, who along with Morad Tahbaz and seven others was arrested last February, died in Evin Prison following intense interrogations.
In those same days, security forces also arrested Kaveh Madani, deputy director of Iran’s Department of Environment, who was later released and left Iran.
Over the past months, hundreds of environmental activists and human rights organizations have come to the defense of these activists and called for independent investigations into torture allegations against the detainees.
The secrecy surrounding these arrests leaves no room for doubt that the matter is related to military programs. The detainees have been deprived of visitation rights during this period.
The regime’s interrogation machinery operating alongside death-sentence judges in the Revolutionary Court, which is the judicial arm of the Revolutionary Guard, will be another shameful page in the history of a country known as the cradle of civilization.
Source: Voice of America
