Following a complaint from an illegal hunter, 3 rangers in Amol were sentenced to a total of 9 years in prison and dismissed from service.
The Mazandaran Provincial Court of Appeal sentenced three rangers from Amol to a total of 9 years in prison and 3 years of suspension from service. They had been sentenced to 18 years in prison and 3 years of suspension from service in the lower court. About 4 years ago, the environmentalists in question clashed with an illegal hunter while on duty in a mountainous area called Nemarestaq in the Larijan district of Amol city in Mazandaran province. This case was opened against them after the illegal hunter filed a complaint.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, three rangers were sentenced to imprisonment and dismissal from service by the Mazandaran Provincial Court of Appeal following a complaint by an illegal hunter.
According to the verdict issued by the Mazandaran Provincial Court of Appeal, each of the rangers was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 18 months suspended for two years, and 1 year of dismissal from service. The verdict was issued due to the conflict between the rangers and an illegal hunter and on charges such as participating in a shooting, disturbing public order, displaying force with a firearm, using handcuffs, illegal detention, and obscenity.
Environmental activist Zahra Keshvari said in a note on her personal page that these environmentalists have been suspended from work since June 1, 2020, and that due to the suspension of their salaries, they have faced numerous problems, and now they must spend 18 months in prison.
These citizens had previously been sentenced to a total of 18 years in prison and 3 years of dismissal from service in the first instance court, and the sentence was overturned by the appeal court. However, after the plaintiff objected to the ruling, the case was re-examined and ultimately these rangers were sentenced to dismissal from service and imprisonment.
Four years ago, following a hunter who was shooting while trying to hunt, these rangers fired shots into the air while chasing him in a mountainous area called Namarestagh in the Larijan district of Amol city in Mazandaran province , and eventually stopped the offending hunter's car by puncturing its tire. The offender then got into a fight with the rangers, and they were forced to use pepper spray and handcuffs to arrest the hunter. The offending hunter was not physically harmed in this incident.
Not long ago, Mohammad Bagher Mohammadi Laini, the representative of the Supreme Leader in Mazandaran and the Friday Imam of Sari, protested the sentencing of these three rangers and called the issuance of these sentences by the judicial system against justice. In his speech, he called for support for the mentioned rangers.
This month, following the publication of news of the killing of two environmentalists in Zanjan, a group of environmental activists called on the judiciary to consider a bill to protect environmentalists. The head of the judiciary also promised legal protection for environmentalists. However, the shortage of environmentalists and the double pressure on other forces, the low salaries of environmentalists, the existence of a gap in the law on the use of weapons by these forces, the failure to investigate the case of the killed environmentalists and its remaining open, are among the main problems that this segment of society continues to face.
Source: HRANA
