The Family of Kavous Seyed Emami Filed a Complaint Against IRIB

The lawyer representing the family of Kavous Seyed Emami announced that his clients have filed a complaint against the head, political deputy, and director of the second channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the producer of the news program "20:30," and the producers of the program "Forbidden Zone." On Sunday (July 15), Payam Darafshan told the IRNA news agency that Mehran and Ramin Seyed Emami, the children of Kavous Seyed Emami, have lodged a complaint against these individuals at the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office. The complaint is based on charges of "spreading falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion, defamation, insult, and actions against national security." Kavous Seyed Emami, a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen, a professor at Imam Sadiq University, the director of the Persian Heritage Institute, and an environmental activist, was arrested in February 2018, and shortly thereafter, judicial authorities announced that he had "committed suicide" in Evin Prison. The Tehran prosecutor has accused him and several other environmental activists in Iran of "espionage" and "collecting classified information in strategic areas" despite the Ministry of Intelligence's opposition. Darafshan stated in May of this year that the "espionage device" that Iranian television claimed belonged to Kavous Seyed Emami was merely a "fishing rod." In a video aired on the "20:30" program against Seyed Emami, an "antenna" was shown, and it was claimed that Seyed Emami was sending "secret information" to foreigners through it. However, according to Seyed Emami's lawyer, this alleged antenna was "merely a fishing rod on which the Seyed Emami family had installed a radio to listen to while on outings outside the city." Darafshan told IRNA that the "Forbidden Zone" program had published private photos of his clients' ancestor and insisted on the accusation of "espionage" before proving the crime, despite the Ministry of Intelligence's explicit statement denying the espionage allegations. He stated that the program claimed: "Seyed Emami, by establishing the Persian Heritage Institute with a team commissioned by Western intelligence agencies, was conducting extensive research on environmental crises in Iran, especially the issues of water, drought, and famine, and was networking and recruiting under the guise of these activities." The program also accused this university professor and his team of sending information from "military and security centers," filming "missile, military, and security sites," and "measuring the launch-to-landing distance of missiles." This program also portrayed Kavous Seyed Emami as having a "special status" with "foreign services" and referred to his "suicide" in prison as a "pulse and security message for his intended audience." Darafshan introduced the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the detaining authority of Seyed Emami as lacking jurisdiction in the matter of "espionage" and described the airing of such a program as "contrary to Article 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code." According to him, the complaint by Seyed Emami's children, whose mother has also been banned from leaving the country, will be addressed in the ninth branch of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office. Earlier in July, Mahmoud Sadqi, a member of parliament, reported on the "invasion" of security agents into Kavous Seyed Emami's home for the purpose of "filming for a movie." Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, commented on Sadqi's tweet regarding the invasion of security agents into Seyed Emami's home and placing a box inside, stating: "I don't know; I didn't hear about the box, but there must have been legal permission for the action taken." Meanwhile, Ramin Seyed Emami reported on his mother, Maryam Mombini's hospitalization after she had recently been discharged from the hospital, following "interrogations in front of the agents' cameras." Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian Minister of Justice and a well-known international human rights lawyer, has taken on the representation of the Seyed Emami family, and Amnesty International has also urged Iranian authorities to end the "ruthless" harassment against this environmental activist's family.