ایران: فعالان محیط زیست همچنان در زندان بازداشت خودسرانه، بدون اتهام مشخص یا دادرسی عادلانه

Iran: Environmentalists Languish in Jail

Arbitrary Detention, No Clear Charges or Due Process

ایران: فعالان محیط زیست همچنان در زندان

بازداشت خودسرانه، بدون اتهام مشخص یا دادرسی عادلانه

October 11, 2018

(Beirut) – Eight environmental activists arbitrarily detained in Iran in January and February 2018 remains in detention eight months later without clear charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Iranian authorities should either immediately release them or charge them with recognizable crimes and produce evidence to justify their continued detention.

On September 30, family members said on social media that judicial authorities had told them that the detained environmentalists can only be represented by lawyers from a pre-approved list of 20 that the judiciary had published in June. The authorities have not allowed the detained environmentalist’s access to lawyers of their choice or set a trial date.

“Iran’s judiciary is again highlighting its role as key functionaries in repressive state machinery rather than defenders of justice,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Even though the environmentalists have spent eight months in pretrial detention, the authorities have still not come up with a criminal charge against them.”

On January 24 and 25, the Revolutionary Guards intelligence organization arrested Houman Jokar, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi, Taher Ghadirian, Kavous Seyed Emami, and Morad Tahbaz, all members of a local environmental group, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. On February 13, Abbas Jafaridolatabadi, the prosecutor of Tehran, told reporters that detained activists are accused of using environmental projects as a cover to collect classified strategic information.