Window; Lack of Access to Lawyers for Environmental Prisoners and Continued Detention of Nasrin Sotoudeh and Zeinab Taheri

Nearly five months after the arrest of environmental activists, no court has been formed for these individuals, and there is little information available regarding their cases. The judiciary has declared their charges as security-related, but the Ministry of Intelligence and the head of the Environmental Protection Organization state that there is no evidence of espionage in their cases. Nevertheless, several of these environmental activists remain in detention without access to legal counsel. Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, a lawyer in Tehran, expressed readiness to represent Sam Rajabi, one of these activists, but the investigator stated that he cannot accept his representation because his name is not on the list of 20 'trusted lawyers' of the judiciary. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent lawyer, was arrested at her home on June 13 and remains in Evin Prison despite global criticism. Last week, Sotoudeh's husband announced that a bail of 650 million tomans had been issued for her, but she deemed this amount 'disproportionate' to her charges and refused to accept it. Mohammad Mostafaei, a lawyer residing in Norway, also considers this bail 'disproportionate and illegal.' Additionally, this week's program includes: the continued detention of Zeinab Taheri, a lawyer in Tehran; criticisms regarding the execution of a 'juvenile offender' in Qom Central Prison; the arrest of several citizens in Tehran during recent market protests; and news about other political and ideological prisoners in Iran.