Questions surround death in Iran prsion

QUESTIONS surrounded the death of a prominent IranianCanadian environmentalist yesterday after authorities claimed he committed suicide in prison a fortnight after his arrest.

Iran’s academic community was in shock over the death of Kavous Seyed Emami, 63, one of the country’s most revered professors and head of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. He was arrested along with seven colleagues from the wildlife NGO on January 24, and his death was announced by the family on social media late on Saturday.

“The news of my father’s passing is impossible to fathom,” wrote his son Ramin Seyed Emami, a well-known singer, on his Instagram page.

He said security officials had informed his mother on Friday.

“They say he committed suicide. I still can’t believe this.”

Asked about the case yesterday, Tehran’s chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi confirmed the death.

“This person was one of the accused and given that he knew there were many revelations against him and that he himself had made confessions, unfortunately he committed suicide in prison,” he told the reformist ILNA news agency.

Dolatabadi had said on Saturday that several people linked to environmental causes had been arrested on espionage charges, without giving further details.

“A number of individuals who collected information and gave it to foreigners were identified, some were arrested and some may be arrested in the future. The case is at its initial stage and details cannot be disclosed,” Gholamhossein Esmailie, the head ofTehran’s judiciary department, told ILNA yesterday.

The Iran Sociology Association, of which Emami was an active member, released a statement yesterday questioning the claims.

“The information published about him is not believable and we expect officials to respond and to provide the public with information concerning his death,” the statement said.

A source close to the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation told AFP that the other seven were still in jail.

Among them was Hooman Jokar, who headed a program to save the endangered Asiatic cheetah.

Morad Tahbaz, an IranianAmerican businessman who was a member of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation board, was also in detention.

Emami’s death follows reports of at least two other “suicides” in detention that were linked to the weeklong protests in late December and early January.