The initial verdicts of the defendants in the environmental case were announced.
Twenty-two months after their arrest and months of uncertainty, the Revolutionary Court has sentenced six environmental activists to a total of 48 years in prison. It has been announced that the sentences for Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh will be announced next week.
Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, headed by Judge Salavati, has sentenced six of the eight defendants in the environmental case to six to ten years in prison. Niloufar Bayani and Morad Tahbaz, the first and second defendants in the case, were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Taher Ghadririan and Hooman Jokar were sentenced to eight years, and Amir Hossein Khaleghi and Sepideh Kashani were sentenced to six years each.
ISNA news agency reported that the sentences of Sam Rajabi and Alireza Kouhpayeh, two other defendants in the case, will be communicated to their lawyers next week.
Niloufar Bayani, a biology graduate from McGill University who worked at the United Nations in Geneva, was sentenced to ten years in prison and to "return the proceeds of six years of work at the United Nations," according to the verdict.
The closed-door trial of these environmental activists began in the winter of 2018. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Intelligence have denied the espionage charges against them, but on October 12, the Judiciary Spokesperson called Morad Tahbaz, Niloufar Bayani, and Hooman Jokar “defendants in the case of espionage from sensitive military centers under the guise of environmentalism” and announced that they would be summoned to present their final defenses.
These defendants were arrested by the IRGC Intelligence Organization in February 2017 and spent 22 months in temporary detention and uncertainty. They were initially charged with “espionage” and “corruption on earth,” and the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC Intelligence Organization disagreed on this matter.
Kavous Seyed Emami, one of the detainees in this case, died suspiciously in prison two weeks after the group was arrested, and the cause of his death was declared "suicide."
In recent weeks, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had ordered the cases of these individuals to be referred to the Supreme National Security Council. Khamenei's office had previously responded to a request from the defendants' families and said it would not intervene in the matter.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said the sentences were issued after 36 court sessions and the verdict of the lower court is subject to appeal. He said the defendants received sentences ranging from 4 to 10 years. Considering the sentences announced for the first six, it is likely that Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kohpayeh will receive 4 years in prison.
The defendants and their defense attorneys have 20 days to appeal the verdict.
Source: DW
