Government Officials Emphasize Innocence of Detained Environmental Activists

Two members of Hassan Rouhani’s administration have stated that detained environmental activists have not engaged in espionage activities and should be released.

According to Iranian domestic news agencies, Issa Kalantari, Vice President and Head of the Department of Environment, announced on Tuesday, June 1st at the World Biodiversity Day conference that there is no evidence supporting the accusations leveled against these individuals.

Stating that the Ministry of Intelligence has also concluded that there is no evidence of espionage by the detained environmental activists, he said that these individuals should be released soon as a matter of course.

He also stated, “The government has appointed a group of four ministers to follow up on the environmental detentions. In my opinion, unfortunately these people have been detained without any action being taken. These colleagues have reached the same conclusion.”

Earlier, Mahmoud Sadeghi, Tehran’s representative in parliament, also referred to the Ministry of Intelligence’s responsibility in identifying espionage cases in the country and stated that experts from the Ministry of Intelligence have announced that the detained environmental activists are not spies.

In December of last year, Kavous Seyed-Emami along with 9 other environmental activists and experts were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence unit. Shortly after, prison officials informed Mr. Seyed-Emami’s family that he had committed suicide in prison.

His death prompted significant reactions in Canada and the United States, and several human rights organizations criticized the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic’s judicial system accused the detainees of “espionage.” The Islamic Republic’s state broadcasting reported that Mr. Seyed-Emami, a university professor and director of the Parsian Heritage Wildlife Foundation Institute, and his colleagues, using cameras for photographing leopards, conducted surveillance of Revolutionary Guards missile sites and provided information about these sites to foreign intelligence organizations.

The head of the Department of Environment, however, found this accusation unfounded, stating that these cameras are only capable of photographing a limited area around them. Later, the lawyer for several of the detainees also announced that one of the pieces of evidence against Mr. Seyed-Emami was a fishing hook, which they used to place their radio on while traveling to mountainous and remote areas to listen to music and news.

Concurrent with Issa Kalantari’s statements regarding the innocence of the detained environmental activists, reports indicate that after approximately 118 days of detention, some of them have been allowed 10-minute visits with their families.

Morteza Arianzadeh, Niloofar Bayani, Houman Jokar, Amir-Hossein Khaleghi Hamidi, Hasan Ragh, Sam Rajabi, Aref Zare, Ali-Reza Farhadzadeh, Taher Ghadiriyan, Abdolreza Kouhpaaye, and Hamideh Kashani Doost are detained environmental activists and experts.

Some of these individuals have a long history of environmental protection activities and cooperation with the government in preserving Iran’s wildlife species.

Beyond these individuals, several other environmental activists have been arrested in recent months in various regions of Iran, particularly in Hormozgan and Bushehr provinces. Some reports have put the number of detained environmental activists at more than 50 people.

Source: Voice of America