Interview with the Lawyer of Kavous Seyed-Emami's Family Regarding the Latest Status of His Case

On Tuesday, Kavous Seyed-Emami's family, accompanied by their lawyers, visited the forensic office and the 27th district prosecutor's office to file a legal case. Mr. Seyed-Emami's son announced on Twitter that on Wednesday, February 13, they would receive his father's body for burial. Kavous Seyed-Emami, a sociology professor and environmental activist, was arrested two weeks ago along with several other activists in this field, and on February 8, his family was informed that he had committed suicide in prison. Mr. Seyed-Emami's death in prison has sparked widespread reactions, with the Political Science Association, the Sociology Association, the Peace Studies Association, and the Iranian Cultural Studies and Communications Association, as well as several human rights organizations, demanding explanations from the responsible authorities regarding this incident. The Iran Human Rights Campaign issued a statement holding the judiciary responsible for the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, and called for a UN investigation into suspicious deaths in Iranian prisons. Radio Farda interviewed Payam Darvishan, one of the two lawyers for Seyed-Emami's family, who initially inquired about the latest status of his case. Payam Darvishan stated that the investigation is incomplete and issues remain unclear. Even the autopsy report, which is the first and fundamental document indicating the cause of death in suspicious deaths, suicides, or any case other than natural death, has not been issued by the forensic office. This document must first be issued to explicitly state the cause of death and clarify the issues before further steps can be taken. Mr. Darvishan's son announced that his father's body is to be handed over for burial before the forensic office takes any action. The forensic office conducts autopsies in all cases, takes tissue samples, and extracts blood samples, and after the autopsy, the body is handed over to the deceased's family. So, are you saying that the forensic office has completed these actions? Yes, they have conducted the autopsy but have not issued the autopsy report. Usually, such a process takes about a month. Mr. Darvishan, Ali Motahari, a member of parliament, said today that the explanations provided by the IRGC experts regarding Mr. Seyed-Emami's suicide are insufficient and stated that a video was shown, but the moment of the suicide was not visible. What information can you provide us regarding the video that exists of the suicide, which is said to be Mr. Seyed-Emami's suicide? We watched the video in the presence of the deputy head of the criminal prosecutor's office and the deceased's children. We saw it completely. But as Mr. Motahari mentioned, the suicide is not visible in the video. There are several issues... This is why I say the report must be issued; the deceased could have had a stroke. He could have been under the influence of medication for his actions, and many other possibilities exist. Therefore, the report must be issued so we can explicitly see what the blood test indicates. Was he taking medication that he might not have had access to? Is there something in his blood? The investigation is incomplete. It must be completed so we can take further steps regarding his case. Do you know if Mr. Seyed-Emami had any specific illness? What was his health condition? We announced our representation today in the criminal prosecutor's office, and a case was formed, and we read the initial reports, which were also general. His children's condition is not good; they were worse today. This situation is distressing; we tried to proceed calmly so they could conduct the burial ceremony, and then gradually gather information from them to move forward with the case. Is there generally a possibility of suicide in Iranian prisons, in solitary confinement? The discussion is that even if you consider the possibility of suicide, it is the negligence of the individual or institution that is holding the person, and the prison organization must be accountable for keeping the individual there. In fact, his conversation was with the judicial authority, Mr. Shahidi, the deputy head of the prosecutor's office, who helped a lot, demanded the video, insisted, and brought it to show. They also promised to proceed decisively to clarify the issues. His discussion with him was that when a person is in a cell, under severe security interrogation, much more care must be taken to ensure that any means are removed from their reach, especially if they are under security interrogation. There is also a jurisprudential discussion that the prison guard is responsible for any incident that occurs to the prisoner. In the past, we have seen that some security prisoners have lost their lives in prison, such as Zahra Kazemi. How likely do you think Mr. Seyed-Emami's case is similar to hers? We also have Saeed Emami, who was said to have ingested a cleaning substance. Now, Zahra Kazemi was said to have been hit on the head and fell. But how did you provide Saeed Emami with a lethal substance? Another issue is that we must pay attention to the personality of the prisoner. He was a professor of sociology of religions. Given his personality, his ideology is fundamentally against suicide. He was not a secular or laic person. He was a professor at Imam Sadiq University, he was of an age, and the fact that he would take such an action is very different from a twenty-five-year-old. It must be thoroughly investigated under what circumstances he was, what his motivations were, and what issues were present. I saw that Mr. Emadeddin Baghi wrote a very good article. He pointed out that in a case of murder, it is much better than suicide because in murder, you have a guilty party, but in suicide, you have a system that destroys the individual to the point that they take their own life. And suicide is much worse, especially in the case of such a professor, with expertise in the sociology of religions. Therefore, many issues must be examined to see how he reached this point if he did indeed do this. So, Mr. Darvishan, as I understand it, you leave open the possibility that it may not have been suicide and that he may have been treated similarly to Zahra Kazemi, resulting in his death? Look, as a lawyer, I work with evidence and matters of proof. As I mentioned, the investigation is completely incomplete. We are not in a hurry to conclude. If evidence reaches us, if we see that the autopsy report is incomplete, we will object and send it to the commission. If we see that it still has its deficiencies, we will naturally state which parts of the forensic work are incomplete. This issue is also very important that regardless of whether an individual commits suicide or not, how many different factors influenced their motivation. That is, someone can be so frightened or subjected to various pressures that their will is diminished. This is also subject to investigation, and it has been decided that the relevant judicial authority will investigate. One of the charges against Mr. Seyed-Emami was espionage. What information do you have regarding this? In the criminal prosecutor's office where we are pursuing this matter, he himself has no information in this regard. Their case is separate; it is in the security prosecutor's office, inaccessible, and no one has information about how this matter was raised.