Report by an international organization: 6 people were killed in Iran last year while defending the environment
In 2018, more than three people were killed each week around the world while defending the land and the environment, and many more faced criminal charges. For Iran, the figure was six in one year.
The international non-governmental organization Global Witness, based in London and Washington, said in a report published in July 2019 that six people were killed in Iran in 2018 for defending the environment.
The report put the Philippines at the top of the list, reporting that 30 people were killed defending the environment in the country in 2018.
According to the report, the Philippines, Colombia, India, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iran top the list of countries where environmental defenders have been killed, in that order.
Global Witness writes that in some countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, environmental defenders have been labeled with accusations such as “terrorists” or “enemies of the state.” The organization has referred in its report to nine environmental activists who were imprisoned in Iran on charges of espionage.
In a report last month, Amnesty International called 2018 the "year of shame" for the Islamic Republic, announcing that more than 7,000 activists from various fields, including environmental activists, were arrested in Iran.
This situation is not unique to 2018; before that, in February 2017, a group of Iranian environmental activists were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization. The charges against these individuals were “espionage,” and a little later, the charges against four of them were changed to “corruption on earth.”
Kavous Seyed Emami was among those arrested, and two weeks after his arrest, news of his death in prison was released. The Islamic Republic authorities stated that the cause of his death was suicide, but Seyed Emami's family has denied this claim.
Previously, the Human Rights Campaign in Iran, citing "informed and close sources" to them, wrote that these individuals had been forced to confess against themselves "under threat of death."
Brian Hook, the US State Department's special representative for Iran, also criticized the state of the environment and water resources management in Iran in a video released last April on the occasion of World Water Day. Referring to public protests over water problems in some regions of Iran, including Isfahan and Khuzestan, he said that "the peaceful protest of these people has been suppressed by the regime with force. The mullahs' regime does not tolerate any protests in this regard. Last year, Iran arbitrarily arrested 60 environmental activists. Kavous Seyyed-Emami, a researcher and Canadian citizen, died in prison under suspicious circumstances."
Source: Voice of America
