Eight activists draw prison time in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran sentenced eight environmental activists, including an Iranian who reportedly also has British and American citizenship, to prison sentences ranging from four to 10 years on charges of spying for the United States and acting against Iran’s national security, the judiciary said Tuesday.

According to the judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, an appeals court issued the final verdicts.

Two of the activists, Morad Tahbaz and Niloufar Bayani, got 10 years each and were ordered to return the money they were accused of receiving from the U.S. government for their services.

Tahbaz is an Iranian who also holds U.S. and British citizenship.

Iran does not recognize dual or multiple nationalities, meaning Iranians it detains cannot receive consular assistance from their other countries. In most cases, dual citizens have faced secret charges in closed hearings before Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government.

Iran is holding several foreign and dual citizens, including five U.S.-Iranian citizens.

Esmaili, the judiciary spokesman, said two other activists, Houman Jokar and Taher Ghadirian, each got eight-year sentences for “collaborating with the hostile government of America.”

Three of the activists — Sam Rajabi, Sepideh Kashan Doust and Amirhossein Khaleghi Hamidi — were sentenced to six years in prison each. The eighth activist, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, got four years. All the activists were arrested in early 2018.

A ninth activist who was arrested at the time, Kavous Seyed Emami, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, died while in custody under disputed circumstances in February 2018. His widow then was blocked from flying out of Iran, but later made it out.

Iran is also holding others with ties to the West, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years on allegations of planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling in Iran with her young daughter.

Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-yearold father, Baquer, a former UNICEF representative who served as governor of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, both are serving 10-year prison sentences on espionage charges.