Reactions to the Death of Seyed Emami in Prison; Mohseni Ejei: The Suicide Issue is Under Investigation

While the head of the parliamentary environmental faction has denied the accusation of 'espionage' against the detained environmental activists, the spokesperson for the judiciary once again accused the detainees of espionage and announced that the issue of 'suicide' of Kavous Seyed Emami is under investigation. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary spokesperson, said in an interview with ILNA news agency on Monday, February 12, that he has no information about the details of Kavous Seyed Emami's 'suicide,' a university professor and environmental activist, in prison, and that this matter is under investigation. In response to ambiguities raised about the 'suicide' of Kavous Seyed Emami and two protesters from the previous December and the alleged 'lack of care' from the prison organization for prisoners, he stated: 'Care is being taken. However, this recent issue is also under investigation to see how it happened.' Kavous Seyed Emami was arrested about two weeks ago along with several other environmental activists, and eventually, judiciary officials announced that he had 'committed suicide' in prison. The death of Mr. Seyed Emami in prison has had widespread repercussions, and the Political Science Association, the Sociology Association, the Peace Studies Association, and the Iranian Association for Cultural Studies and Communications, as well as several human rights organizations, have called for explanations from the responsible institutions regarding this incident. Among them, the Human Rights Campaign in Iran issued a statement holding the judiciary responsible for the death of Kavous Seyed Emami, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, and called for a United Nations investigation into suspicious deaths in Iranian prisons. Firouz Naderi, a NASA management consultant and former director of NASA's Solar System Exploration, criticized the death of Kavous Seyed Emami on his Twitter page, stating that 'they arrest and kill the best scientists.' Meanwhile, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Mr. Seyed Emami's family issued a statement calling for an 'independent' autopsy of his body and announced that his body had been autopsied by Iranian government agencies, but the results had not been communicated to the family. The family of this university professor also announced that 'due to the unclear conditions of burial,' they cannot announce a specific date for his funeral. In the meantime, Mohammad Javad Fathi, a member of the Legal and Judicial Commission of the parliament, stated that 'the Tehran prosecutor, as the main responsible party in these matters, must follow up and be accountable' and pointed out that 'according to Article 32 of the Criminal Procedure Code, supervision over judicial agents is the responsibility of the prosecutor of the judicial district.' Additionally, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, the head of the parliamentary environmental faction, called for 'clear accountability' from the judiciary and government follow-up regarding the detention of several environmental activists and the death of Kavous Seyed Emami in prison. According to ISNA news agency, he stated that 'no convincing results have been obtained so far' from the follow-ups conducted in this regard. Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in parliament, had previously mentioned that Isa Kalantari, the head of the Environmental Protection Organization, confirmed reports regarding the arrest of Kavous Madani, his deputy. Earlier reports indicated that, in addition to Kavous Seyed Emami, two other colleagues of his at the 'Wildlife' institute, named Houman Jokar, the Asian cheetah project manager, and Morad Tahbaz, an environmental and cultural heritage activist, had also been arrested. Kayhan London newspaper identified another detainee as Niloufar Bayani, the wife of Houman Jokar and the former head of activities and planning and advisor to the UN Environment Program. According to ISNA, Mr. Tabesh also noted that the detention of environmental activists at a time when 'the enemies of this nation are looking for excuses to fabricate cases against our country is far from wisdom and sheer bad taste.' According to this parliament member, the lack of information about the detainees and the death of Mr. Seyed Emami 'increases ambiguities regarding the charges against the detainees.' He emphasized that 'the detainees were not political and did not have access to classified information.' Nevertheless, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei reiterated the accusations made by the Tehran prosecutor regarding the detainees, stating that they were arrested 'for providing classified information and information from sensitive centers' to American and Israeli intelligence agencies. He added: 'However, for whom and to what extent their charges will be proven, we must wait until the end of investigations and the court.' Moussa Ghazanfari Abadi, the head of the Revolutionary Court, also stated that the case of these individuals 'is under investigation in the security prosecutor's office and has not yet come to the Revolutionary Court.' Iranian officials have previously raised the accusation of 'espionage' against several political and civil activists, and some of these activists have reported after their release that interrogators pressured them to accept these charges.