One Year After Arrest: Environmental Activists Extorted Confessions with "Death Threats"
A year after the mass arrest of environmental activists in Iran, the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, citing "informed sources close to them," wrote that these individuals had been forced to confess "under death threats" to their crimes.
The website reported that, based on "new details" that they recently received, the Islamic Republic's judicial authorities, in "close cooperation" with agents of the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence agency, "played a role in building a case against these activists based on false confessions made under duress and extreme pressure."
Hooman Jokar, Taher Ghadirian, Morad Tahbaz, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi, and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh are environmental activists currently in detention.
Several environmental activists have also been arrested in Kurdistan in recent months. According to reports published on some human rights websites, the detainees are being pressured into “forced confessions.”
Kavous Seyed Emami was also among the activists arrested, but he died in prison, and Islamic Republic officials stated the cause of his death as “suicide.” However, according to Seyed Emami’s family lawyer, the initial autopsy report showed that there were bruises and the mark of an injection on various parts of his body.
The initial charge against these individuals was "espionage," and a little later it was announced that the charge against four of them had been changed to "corruption on earth."
This spring, Issa Kalantari, head of Iran’s Environmental Organization, said that Hassan Rouhani had formed a four-member delegation, including the ministers of justice, interior, and intelligence, as well as the vice president for legal affairs, to investigate the cases of these individuals. The delegation ultimately concluded that the individuals should be released.
However, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, spokesman for the judiciary, emphasized the accusation of "espionage" against these individuals and said that the delegation intended by Rouhani did not have access to the file.
One of the reasons they were accused of espionage is their use of camera traps used to protect a rare species of Asiatic cheetah. IRGC officials believe the researchers used them to scout for military sites and the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program, something Issa Kalantari, head of Iran's Environmental Organization, has denied.
The judiciary and the court have also pressured these individuals to change their lawyers. At the time of the announcement of the “corruption on earth” charges, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer for some of the defendants, said that these individuals had “a lawyer of their choice,” but “they have not accepted their lawyers and have hired a hired lawyer for them.”
About a month ago, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi told VOA that the judge of Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court had asked Sam Rajabi and Taher Ghadirian, two defendants in the case and Aghasi's clients, to change their lawyers.
A few months ago, the Iranian judiciary announced a list of "approved lawyers" to prosecutors, stating that defendants in political and security cases could only choose a lawyer from among the people on this list.
In recent months, activists in various fields have been arrested on charges such as “influence,” mostly by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence agency. These include the arrest of Iranian-Australian demographer Maymant Hosseini Chavoshi and child rights activist Leili Khatami.
Source: Voice of America
