Sister of Sam Rajabi: Families of Environmental Activists Threatened with Execution of Their Children

Katayoun Rajabi, sister of Sam Rajabi, an environmental activist detained in Iran, criticized the unspecified nature of the agency detaining her brother in an open letter to Hassan Rouhani. She added that families of the detainees are threatened that if they pursue the matter further, their children will be executed. Sam Rajabi, Houman Jokar, and Sepideh Kashani, his wife, Taher Ghadirian, Amir Hossein Khalighi, and Niloufar Bayani are six environmental activists and staff members of the 'Persian Wildlife Heritage' institute who were arrested in February 2018 and remain in custody. The director of this institute, Kavous Seyed Emami, died in prison a few days after his arrest, with judicial authorities declaring the cause of death as 'suicide.' The Iranian judiciary has labeled the charges against these individuals and dozens of other environmental activists detained across various cities as 'espionage,' a claim that the Ministry of Intelligence has denied. In her letter to the Iranian president, published on the 'Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners' website, Katayoun Rajabi wrote that the family's inquiries over the 130 days since her brother's arrest have been 'fruitless.' She added that two weeks after her brother's arrest and after hearing about Kavous Seyed Emami's death, she and her sister 'dared to inform friends and relatives about what had happened.' Rajabi criticized the lack of clarity regarding the 'agency' detaining her brother and stated that the Attorney General of Iran and state television insult these environmental activists without a trial. She objected to the 'false promises' made to the families, mentioning that the case investigator told them not to pursue the issue of a lawyer for Sam Rajabi, or else they would face 'consequences.' Rajabi questioned, without naming any specific individual, 'By what authority and under which legal principle are worried families threatened and told that if they pursue further, their child will be executed?' Katayoun Rajabi also criticized Hassan Rouhani for not having made any comments regarding the detained environmental activists in the months since their arrest. She asked the president, 'Is interrogation without the presence of a lawyer and for more than two months not a violation of the constitution? Who is accountable for these violations according to the citizen's rights charter under your administration?' Previously, Leili Hoshmand Afshar, Sam Rajabi's mother, had stated regarding her son's case that 'there are many contradictions, and everyone says something different; even Sam Rajabi's lawyer has had his stamps invalidated twice but still has not been allowed to meet him.'