Iranians demand answers over environmentalist death
LEADING academics and rights activists demanded action from Iran’s government yesterday following the alleged “suicide” of a revered environmentalist in jail.
The family of Kavous Seyed Emami, 63, a renowned professor at Imam Sadegh University and founder of the PersianWildlife Heritage Foundation, was told on Friday that he had killed himself in prison two weeks after his arrest. A judiciary official claimed on Sunday that he had confessed to crimes related to an espionage investigation, which has seen seven other members of his wildlife NGO placed in detention.
The incident prompted Iranian rights activist Emadeddin Baghi, who has been jailed several times, to express regret over his failure to speak up about prison abuses in the past.
“When I heard this news I felt guilty because, in order to prevent it being exploited by Iran’s enemies . . . I refused to reveal the bad treatment I had experienced during my detention,” Baghi wrote on his Telegram channel. “If we had all spoken out, it would be known why such catastrophes happen in prisons.”
A group of four academic societies, representing some of Iran’s top universities, wrote an open letter to President Hassan Rou- hani, demanding “immediate and effective action to seriously investigate the case . . . and make the institutions involved in this painful loss accountable”.
“In addition to being a wellknown professor, a distinguished scientist and war veteran . . . he was a noble and ethical human being,” they wrote in the letter.
“The news and rumours related to his arrest and death are not believable.”
Asked about Emami’s case yesterday, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie told the reformist ILNA news agency: “I have heard he committed suicide, but I have so far no information on the details. This recent incident is under investigation.”
Separately, the Environment Protection Organisation denied rumours its deputy head Kaveh Madani had been arrested.