Around 2,800 Iranian Citizens Call for Review of Environmental Activists’ Cases

Approximately 2,800 Iranian citizens have sent a letter to Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Eje’i, the head of Iran’s judiciary, calling for a review of the cases of imprisoned environmental activists, given Hossein Taeb’s resignation from his position as head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization and their eligibility for conditional release.

The letter, signed by more than 2,780 people, refers to the imprisoned environmental activists as “the most prominent and reputable experts and specialists in wildlife studies and conservation in the country” who have been serving prison sentences for over four years.

Morad Tahbaz, Niloufar Bayani, Taher Ghadirian, Homan Jokar, Sam Rajabi, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Sepideh Kashani, and Abdolreza Koohpayeh have been imprisoned since February 2018 on charges such as “espionage” and “collaboration with hostile states.” However, the signatories of the letter recall the official position of the Ministry of Intelligence under the previous government, which stated that “the denial of espionage by these individuals was a reaction” to the allegations.

The letter also references the report of a four-member committee from the twelfth government, consisting of the ministers of interior, intelligence, justice, and the legal advisor to the presidency, which also “acknowledged that there is no document regarding espionage activities by these environmental activists.”

The Hassan Rouhani government had repeatedly emphasized that “the Ministry of Intelligence, as the sole official authority for determining espionage, has stated that these individuals are not spies.” Nevertheless, the main plaintiff in this case was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization, which was headed by Hossein Taeb.

The letter’s signatories, referring to recent changes in the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization and Taeb’s resignation from this position, have requested that the head of Iran’s judiciary “have the files of these activists re-evaluated from a security perspective by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization under the current leadership of General Kazemi.”

The letter then reminds that the eight imprisoned environmental activists “are fully eligible for conditional release because they not only have served one-third of their detention sentences as the most fundamental condition for conditional release, but some have even served more than half of their prison sentences… and furthermore, there is no ruling for them to pay compensation for damages to the private plaintiff in this case.”

Among the signatories of this letter are many prominent figures from academic, legal, social, and artistic circles, such as Mahmoud Karmi, a full professor at Tehran University’s Faculty of Natural Resources, Abdolhossein Vahab-Zade, an environmental pioneer and ecologist, Ismail Kahrom, a university professor and former advisor to the head of the Environmental Protection Organization, Bijan Farangidare Shouri, an ecologist and senior environmental researcher, Asghar Mohammadi Fazel, a retired faculty member of the Faculty of Environment, as well as Hedayeh Tehrani, Reza Kianian, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb.

Kavous Seyed-Emami, a university professor and environmental activist, was also one of the individuals arrested in connection with this case alongside the eight environmental activists. However, after some time, his family was informed that he had committed “suicide” in prison. Mr. Seyed-Emami’s family has rejected this claim.

Source: Radio Farda