The Moment of Death is Not Shown in the Film of Kavous Seyed-Emami

In response to the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami in prison, a member of the Environment Fraction of Parliament announced that officials from the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have acknowledged that they have "committed negligence in some cases" regarding this matter. Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, university professor, and environmental activist in Iran, died in prison two weeks after his arrest. Islamic Republic officials and state television insist that his death was due to "suicide," but international organizations are calling for clarification of the details of this case. Ahmad Mazani, a member of the Environment Fraction, reported that this fraction held a meeting on Thursday, February 15, with representatives of the IRGC's Intelligence Organization regarding Seyed-Emami's death. According to Mr. Mazani, a film of Kavous Seyed-Emami's death was shown in this meeting, which indicates that his death occurred in the toilet of his cell, and this incident is "not shown in the film." Previously, several members of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Parliament and Seyed-Emami's lawyers had stated that the existing footage of the incident does not provide a clear view of the toilet in this cell and that the act of suicide is not evident. Mr. Mazani further stated, "We question what conditions prevailed that allowed the accused to successfully commit suicide, and naturally, if negligence occurred, it should be addressed." This member of the Hope Fraction mentioned that the officials of this case have "acknowledged some of their negligence" and added that "it seems the head of the judiciary has ordered a complete investigation in this regard." He did not provide further explanation about the nature of the "negligence" that occurred. Mr. Mazani also stated that a judge should make the final decision regarding this case and that "under these circumstances, state television has no right to walk on the nerves of the people with subtitles day and night." Meanwhile, Iranian television aired a film titled "Forbidden Zone" on Thursday evening, claiming that Mr. Seyed-Emami and other detained environmental activists in this case were engaged in "espionage." The film also alleged that cameras installed by these individuals to identify rare animal species in Iran were filming "Iran's missile sites." In the film broadcasted by Iranian television and also in statements from the former Tehran prosecutor, the detainees have been accused of seeking to "create a crisis in some environmental areas of Iran." The airing of this film has led to significant protests on social media. Additionally, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran, wrote in a sarcastic tweet: "State television has also blamed drought and climate change in Iran on environmental spies." On Thursday, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, referred to Kavous Seyed-Emami's death in prison as "suicide" and accused him of taking this action to "prevent the leakage of information and more individuals." These claims have been made while the case is still under investigation, and previously, judiciary officials have repeatedly stated that revealing details of a case for which a definitive ruling has not been issued is against the law. Meanwhile, Amnesty International had previously stated that the remarks of the Tehran prosecutor regarding Seyed-Emami's confessions "intensify existing concerns about the application of torture against him." Previously, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, head of the Environment Fraction of Parliament, and some academic associations rejected the judiciary's statements regarding Seyed-Emami's "espionage," with Mr. Tabesh stating that "the detainees were not political and did not have access to classified information." Iranian officials have previously made espionage accusations against several political and civil activists, and some of these activists have reported after their release that interrogators pressured them to accept these accusations. The film broadcasted by Iranian television announced that eight environmental activists have been detained. So far, the identities of seven of the detained activists have been confirmed, and conflicting reports about the detention of Kaveh Madani, the deputy of the Environmental Protection Organization, have been published. According to reports, besides Kavous Seyed-Emami, Hooman Jokar, the project manager for the protection of the Asiatic cheetah, Taher Ghaderian, Sam Rajabi, Amirhossein Khalighi, and Niloufar Bayani, environmental activists, and Sepideh Kashani, Hooman Jokar's wife and former advisor to the UN Environment Program, have also been detained. In this context, UN officials have called on Iran to respect environmental activists.