November 01, 2019
The charge of “corruption on earth,” which can lead to the death penalty under Iranian law, has been dropped against four detained conservationists following intervention by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has reported.
“After great efforts by the attorneys and families of the imprisoned conservationists, the Supreme Leader has ordered the authorities to pay attention to the expert opinion of the Intelligence Ministry regarding this case, and for this reason their trial was put on hold,” a source with knowledge of the cases told CHRI October 1.
In a direct refutation of claims by the Pasdar intelligence organization, the Intelligence Ministry stated in early 2019 that the conservationists did not engage in espionage. “Also the prosecutor [assigned to this case] has been changed and … this charge [corruption on earth] has been dropped,” the source said.
“Corruption on earth” was one of several charges handed down against Morad Tahbaz, Niloufar Bayani, Taher Ghadirian and Houman Jowkar, four of the nine conservationists detained by the Pasdar intelligence organization in January 2018 Tahbaz is a dual Iranian-American citizen.
in Khuzestan province. The cry quickly went out: “The Americans are coming.”
But the Pasdaran swiftly told everyone there was nothing to worry about. It
was actually a Pasdar drone that just had to make an “emergency landing.”
The four, along with fellow detained conservationists Sepideh Kashani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, still face other serious charges, according to attorney Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, who represents Sam Rajabi.
“They are all facing the charge of ‘assembly and collusion against national security,’” Aghasi told CHRI. “There is also the charge of ‘contacts with the US enemy government … for the purpose of spying,’ but the judge is leaning toward acquittal in regard to spying.”
At a press conference October 14, Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esmaili said, “Based on Article 280 of the Criminal Procedures Regulations, which allows the court to change the charges, the charge of ‘corruption on earth’ has been changed to ‘cooperation with the US enemy government and the Zionist regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran for the purpose of spying for the CIA and Mossad’.”
In May 2018, four months after the arrests of the conservationists, all current and former staff members of the Tehran-based Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation (PHWF), the head the Environment Protection Agency, Issa Kalantari, revealed that the Intelligence Ministry had determined that the detainees had not engaged in espionage—a direct contradiction of the Pasdaran’s allegations. The two intelligence bodies have long been rivals.
“It has been determined that these individuals were detained without doing anything,” Kalantari said on May 22, 2018. “The Intelligence Ministry has concluded that there is no evidence that these individuals were spies.”
According to Aghasi, Tahbaz, the Iranian-American, appeared in court October 12 and the others will be tried soon.
The PHWF’s managing director, Iranian-Canadian sociologist Kavous Seyed-Emami, died under suspicious circumstances in Evin Prison in February 2018, less than two weeks after being arrested.
Prison authorities claimed Seyed-Emami had committed suicide, but the Judiciary refused to allow the family to conduct an independent autopsy before burial.
His wife was banned from leaving Iran until a month ago. To date, many questions persist about the circumstances of Seyed-Emami’s death, and no one has been held accountable for the death of a detainee in state custody.
The Pasdaran have accused the conservationists of gathering intelligence on Iran’s missile installations for the US and Israel under the guise of protecting endangered species, including the Asiatic Cheetah, which the group was tracking with camera traps. But according to the opposition news site Kalame, the Pasdaran targeted the conservationists for opposing the building of missile storage sites on protected lands.
On November 8, Gholam-Hossain Esmaili, then the chief prosecutor of Tehran Province, pointed to the “camera traps” the conservationists were using as evidence that they were spying. The cameras are standard professional equipment.
