New case filed; Niloufar Bayani summoned to the prosecutor's office and charged
Niloufar Bayani, one of the defendants in the environmental activists case who is currently in Evin Prison, was summoned to the prosecutor’s office and charged in a new case. The case was opened following the writing of an open letter by Niloufar Bayani. The letter stated that IRGC intelligence interrogators subjected her to “the most severe mental and psychological torture, threats of physical torture, and sexual threats” during “at least 1,200 hours of interrogation” in order to extract fabricated confessions. For the first time, HRANA News Agency reported on sexual harassment, torture, and threats against some of the defendants in this case, including Niloufar Bayani, in an attempt to extract a forced confession.
According to HRANA News Agency, citing Emedat, in recent days, Niloufar Bayani, the second defendant in the environmental prisoners case, has appeared at Evin Prosecutor's Office to be briefed on the charges in a new case that was recently opened against her.
During this meeting, Ms. Bayani was charged with "spreading lies." This charge is based on the publication of a letter that Niloufar Bayani had written in late February 2019 describing her situation.
Part of the letter states: “In order to extract a fabricated confession, IRGC intelligence interrogators subjected him to “the most severe mental and psychological torture, threats of physical torture, and sexual threats” during “at least 1,200 hours of interrogation.”
Niloufar Bayani's new accusation regarding the publication of the aforementioned materials has been raised at a time when, despite the appointment of a four-member committee by the government in March of last year to investigate the claims made in her letters of complaint, no independent investigation has yet been conducted and no report has been submitted.
Kazem Hosseini, the lawyer for a number of environmental defendants, had announced regarding the issues raised in the letters attributed to Niloufar Bayani that similar issues had been raised in the case of his client, Sepideh Kashani, as in the case of "Niloufar Bayani," another defendant in the case, and that all of the issues had been presented to the court in writing.
It should be noted that on April 19, 2019, HRANA News Agency first revealed in a report about sexual harassment, torture, and threats against some of the defendants in this case, including Niloufar Bayani, in order to obtain a forced confession.
In this report, HRANA stated that Niloufar Bayani was pressured to extract forced confessions against herself and other defendants in the case. She was subjected to harassment, including sexual harassment, in order to make these confessions.
HRANA had learned through its sources that during the interrogation conducted by IRGC intelligence interrogators, this environmental activist was mistreated and harassed in some cases, including being completely naked, being assaulted and having her genitals touched, and being threatened with rape.
Morad Tahbaz, Niloufar Bayani, Hooman Jokar, Taher Ghadirian, Hamideh Kashani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi, and Abdolreza Koohpayeh are the defendants in the environmental activists case, who were arrested by the IRGC Intelligence Organization in February and March 2018 on charges of espionage. The Ministry of Intelligence, Iran's other intelligence agency, which considers itself the sole authority to determine the crime of espionage, had considered the accusation of espionage against the defendants in this case to be baseless.
The initial court sentences for these defendants were ultimately upheld by the appeals court on Tuesday, February 19. According to Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the judiciary, Morad Tahbaz and Niloufar Bayani were sentenced to 10 years in prison for “collaborating with the United States as a hostile state and renouncing the funds received,” Hooman Jokaro and Taher Ghadirian were sentenced to 8 years in prison for “collaborating with the hostile state of the United States,” Sam Rajabi and Sepideh (Hameedeh) Kashani were sentenced to 6 years in prison for “collaborating with the hostile state of the United States,” Amir Hossein Khaleghi was sentenced to 6 years in prison for “espionage,” and Abdolreza Koohpayeh was sentenced to 4 years in prison for “gathering and colluding with the intent to act against security.”
Source: HRANA
