Report by International Organization: Six People Killed in Iran Last Year While Defending the Environment

In 2018, more than three people were killed worldwide each week while defending land and the environment, with many more facing criminal charges. For Iran, this figure was six people in one year.

The London and Washington-based international non-governmental organization “Global Witness” stated in a report published in July 2019 that six people were killed in Iran in 2018 for defending the environment.

The report placed the Philippines at the top of the list, reporting that 30 people were killed in that country in 2018 for defending the environment.

According to this report, the Philippines, Colombia, India, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iran topped the list of countries where environmental defenders have been killed.

Global Witness wrote that in some countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, environmental defenders have been labeled with accusations such as “terrorist” or “enemy of the state.” The organization cited nine environmental activists in its report who were imprisoned in Iran on espionage charges.

Amnesty International called 2018 last month a “year of shame” for the Islamic Republic and announced that more than seven thousand activists in various fields, including environmental activists, were arrested in Iran that year.

This situation is not limited to 2018 and previously, in February 2017, a group of Iranian environmental activists were arrested by the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. These individuals were charged with “espionage,” and shortly after, the charges against four of them were changed to “corruption on earth.”

Kavous Seyed Emami was among these detainees, and two weeks after his arrest, news of his death in prison was released. Islamic Republic officials attributed his death to suicide; however, Seyed Emami’s family has rejected this claim.

Previously, the human rights campaign in Iran, citing “informed and close sources,” wrote that these individuals were forced to confess against themselves “under threat of death.”

Brian Hook, the U.S. State Department’s Special Representative for Iran Affairs, also criticized the environmental situation and water resource management in Iran last month by releasing a video on the occasion of World Water Day. Referring to people’s protests about water problems in some areas of Iran, including Isfahan and Khuzestan, he said: “The peaceful protests of these people were suppressed by the regime with force. The mullah regime tolerates no such protests. Last year, Iran arbitrarily arrested 60 environmental activists. Kavous Seyed Emami, who was a researcher and Canadian citizen, suspiciously lost his life in prison.”

Source: Voice of America