Behind the scenes of the arrest of environmental activists; Iran is concerned about the disclosure of information about nuclear sites
Iran’s Revolutionary Court has entered the preliminary stages of charging five environmental activists who were arrested in February 2017. The five are accused of using environmental projects as a cover to gather classified strategic information, a charge that could carry the death penalty.
The general belief in academic circles is that the Revolutionary Guards believe these five environmental activists have potential information about the location of a facility that may be contaminated with radioactive isotopes or deadly chemicals.
To measure the radiation and chemical contamination of an area, one would need to walk around with a radiometer or take a soil sample. This may be why Iranian intelligence agents were so afraid of arresting several environmental activists and confiscating their electronic devices in various parts of Iran. The map of arrests gives a good idea of the locations of these sensitive sites.
Morad Tahbaz, an American citizen and Columbia University graduate and co-founder of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation, is among the environmental activists who could face the death penalty or a long prison sentence. The foundation’s members had publicly opposed the construction of underground nuclear facilities and missile systems on protected lands. The foundation’s head, Kavous Seyed Emami, who was arrested with Morad Tahbaz and seven others in February, died in Evin Prison after being subjected to harsh interrogations.
In the same days, security forces also arrested Kaveh Madani, the deputy director of Iran's Environmental Protection Organization, who was later released and left Iran.
Over the past months, hundreds of environmental activists and human rights organizations have come out in defense of these activists and called for an independent investigation into the torture of the detainees.
The secrecy surrounding these arrests leaves no doubt that the matter is related to military plans. The detainees have been denied visitation rights during this period.
The encounter between the regime's interrogation machine and the execution judges in the Revolutionary Court, which is the judicial arm of the Revolutionary Guards, will be another shameful page in the history of a country known as the cradle of civilization.
Source: Voice of America
