Kaveh Madani: The Alarmists Stole All My Internet Accounts

Kaveh Madani, the resigned deputy of Iran's Environmental Organization, announced in his resignation letter that upon his return to Iran, without any judicial order, "all of his personal hardware and social media accounts" were "plundered" by the "alarmists" of the Islamic Republic. Simultaneously, the lawyer of the detained environmental activists also announced his withdrawal from this case. The website of the Environmental Organization published a short text of Kaveh Madani's resignation on Wednesday, April 29. However, the full text of this resignation, dated April 26, was published by the ISNA news agency. In this resignation, Mr. Madani addressed the head of the Environmental Organization, stating: "Since the time I decided to return to my homeland, various controversies were created for me by some supporters and alarmists of the regime, to the extent that upon my arrival in Iran, in the absence of any judicial permission, all my personal hardware and accounts were plundered and my civil rights and privacy were violated from the very beginning." The former deputy of the Environmental Organization emphasized that from the perspective of "some alarmists" in the Islamic Republic, he is considered "one of the outsiders" and for this reason, he does not see it as "appropriate" to continue his activities. He stressed: "Continuing such behaviors will bring discouraging results on a national and international level, which will ultimately harm the environment of Iran." While there had previously been reports of Mr. Madani's arrest, he did not mention this issue in his resignation letter. Following the arrest of several environmental activists, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, reported that Kaveh Madani had also been arrested. Subsequently, contradictory reports regarding Mr. Madani's arrest and the access of security agents to his accounts on social media were published. Some reports indicated that Mr. Madani, one day after his arrest, appeared at his office accompanied by several agents and removed some documents and materials from his workplace to present to security officials. However, Kaveh Madani and his wife eventually left Iran, which the Tehran prosecutor considered a sign of "progress in the investigations" in this case. The Tehran prosecutor stated: "The statements of some of the defendants during the investigations confirm the exit of important and strategic information from the country under the guise of environmentalism, which has caused significant damage." An hour after the Tehran prosecutor's comments about Kaveh Madani's "flight" from the country, Mr. Madani tweeted: "I was myself, but I was not one of them." Previously, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, head of the parliamentary environmental faction, and some university associations rejected the judiciary officials' statements regarding the "espionage" of the imprisoned environmental activists. Mr. Tabesh stated on Tuesday that the Ministry of Intelligence does not consider the detainees as spies. Currently, Hooman Jokar, the manager of the Asiatic cheetah conservation project, Taher Ghaderian, Sam Rajabi, Amir Hossein Khalighi, and Niloufar Bayani, environmental activists, along with Sepideh Kashani, Hooman Jokar's wife and former advisor to the UN Environment Program, are detained on charges of "espionage." Another detainee, Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, university professor, and environmental activist, died in prison two weeks after his arrest. Meanwhile, Mostafa Torkhamdani, the lawyer for the detained environmental activists, wrote on Twitter: "I must announce my failure to accept the defense of the environmental defendants' case." He stated that two months ago, by the order of the supervising deputy prosecutor, he submitted the power of attorney related to the environmental activists to Ward 2-A, but this power of attorney has not yet been returned to him "with or without a signature." Mr. Torkhamdani added: "What result does interrogating an unrepresented defendant after 70 days of solitary confinement yield, other than undermining the validity of the investigations and wasting time and resources? Where are you going?" Security officials, based on an illegal procedure, do not allow detainees in political cases to have access to a lawyer during their detention.