Nearly a year has passed since the arrest of environmental activists; request from the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran
Katayoun Rajabi, the sister of Sam Rajabi, one of the eight environmental activists arrested by the Islamic Republic, called on the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran in a series of tweets to speak to Iranian authorities about her brother's violation of civil rights.
On Saturday, Katayoun Rajabi posted a series of tweets on his Twitter page, addressing the status of the case of his brother, Sam Rajabi, an environmental activist arrested in Iran. Addressing Javed Rahman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, he wrote: "All of my family's follow-up efforts during the year that my brother has been in temporary detention by the Iranian authorities have been fruitless, and now I ask you, as the UN Special Representative for Iran, to engage in discussions with the Iranian authorities regarding the violation of my brother's civil rights."
Ms. Rajabi continued her tweets by saying, "After two months of arrest, the families were informed that the interrogation was continuing and that because the cases are security cases, we would not be allowed to have lawyers."
Previously, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer defending two environmental activists, had stated that Judge Salavati had asked the defendants to change their lawyers.
Also, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a spokesman for the judiciary, announced on Sunday that the environmental activists' case had been sent to court, although he said that a date for the trial had not yet been set. Ejei said that one of the reasons for not setting a date for the trial was the defendant's failure to introduce a lawyer or select a defense attorney.
These eight environmental activists, named Morad Tahbaz, Sam Rajabi, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Hooman Jokar, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Taher Ghadirian, and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, were arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on charges of espionage by the IRGC Intelligence Organization.
These individuals were charged with "espionage," but a short time later, four of these detainees were charged with "corruption on earth." Another of those arrested was Dr. Kavous Seyyed Emami, whom the Islamic Republic authorities announced after a while that he had committed suicide in Evin Prison, but no clear evidence for this suicide was provided by the authorities.
This comes at a time when activists in various fields have been arrested in recent months on charges such as "influence," mainly by the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organization.
Source: Voice of America
