{"id":1425,"date":"2019-01-31T15:39:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1425"},"modified":"2019-01-31T15:39:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:39:19","slug":"eight-conservationists-tried-in-iran-on-basis-of-retracted-false-confessions%e2%80%8b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1425","title":{"rendered":"Eight Conservationists Tried in Iran on Basis of Retracted False \u201cConfessions\u201d\u200b"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Half of Indictment Lacks Evidence, Relies on Statements Made Under Extreme Duress<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

January 30, 2019 \u2013 In their first trial session since being detained in Iran one year ago, eight conservationists learned today that the first half of their indictment is based on one detainee\u2019s retracted\u00a0forced \u201cconfessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the 300-page indictment was read today to defendants Houman Jowkar, Taher Ghadirian, Morad Tahbaz, Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh in their closed-door trial on January 30, 2019, at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first court session of the eight environmental conservationists, half of the indictment, which was more than 300 pages, was read and most of it was based on false \u2018confessions\u2019 made by one of the defendants,\u201d a source with knowledge of the court session told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the reading of the indictment\u2026 the defendant interrupted several times and objected that her \u2018confessions\u2019 had become the basis for the trial,\u201d added the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said the \u2018confessions\u2019 had been made under physical and mental torture and intense psychological pressure and that she had retracted all of them after the first round of investigations,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the defendant persisted, the judge warned her to stop her objections but after she continued to object she was allowed to talk for a few minutes about the coerced nature of the confessions and the surrounding circumstances,\u201d added the source.<\/p>\n

The source continued: \u201cIn the first 150 pages of the indictment, no witnesses or evidence were presented by the judicial authorities to prove their case. So far it seems that the court is entirely relying on false confessions, which these individuals have repeatedly retracted because of the circumstances in which they were extracted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Held Incommunicado, Denied Due Process<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until today, the conservationists\u2019 cases had been shrouded in secrecy other than occasional accusations or comments by judicial officials published by state media outlets.<\/p>\n

An informed source that spoke with CHRI on January 24\u00a0stated\u00a0that all of the detainees had been subjected to prolonged periods of solitary confinement and only sporadically granted severely limited access to counsel or phone calls with family members.<\/p>\n

According to the judiciary\u2019s\u00a0news site, the defendants\u2019 court appointed lawyers were present at their first trial session on January 30. But attorney Mohammad Hossein Aghasi told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that he had not been invited to the trial.<\/p>\n

For its part, IRNA reported that there were three lawyers present at the trial and referred to them as \u201cReza Jafari, Beigi and Hosseini.\u201d The report added that all of the lawyers had been\u00a0approved\u00a0by Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani.<\/p>\n

It is unknown how much time the court-appointed lawyers had to study the indictment and prepare a defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parents of some of the defendants went to the courthouse today but they were not allowed inside to see their children,\u201d Lili Houshmand Afshar, the mother of defendant Sam Rajabi, told CHRI on January 30. \u201cThe indictment is 300 pages. They read 150 pages of it today and the next sessions will be held on February 2nd and third.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a year since they detained a bunch of young people and wasted their lives,\u201d she said, adding that her son\u2019s lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, was not allowed to see the indictment or attend the trial.<\/p>\n

Rajabi was initially accused of \u201ccolluding in acts of espionage\u201d but he is currently being tried on the charges of \u201ccontacts with enemy states [the US]\u201d and \u201cassembly and collusion against national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reporting on the trial,\u00a0Mizan, the judiciary\u2019s official news agency, and the\u00a0Fars News Agency, which maintains close ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), referred to the defendants as \u201cindividuals accused of spying on the country\u2019s military installations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to IRNA, four of the eight conservationists have been charged with \u201ccorruption of earth,\u201d three of them with \u201cespionage\u201d and one of them with \u201cassembly and collusion against national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, all of them had been accused of \u201cespionage\u201d but on October 24, 2018, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi\u00a0said\u00a0the charges against four of them had been changed to \u201ccorruption of earth,\u201d which could carry the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Indictment Based on Forced Confessions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Agents of the IRGC\u2019s Intelligence Organization arrested nine conservationists working for the Tehran-based Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), which had been licensed to operate in Iran by the government, between January 24 and 25, 2018.<\/p>\n

The managing director of the PWHF, Kavous Seyed-Emami, died under suspicious circumstances while held for interrogations in Tehran\u2019s Evin Prison.<\/p>\n

The remaining eight PWHF staff members have been held in Evin Prison\u2019s Ward 2-A under the control of the IRGC mostly incommunicado and with extremely limited access to counsel for the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

On January 24, CHRI reported that some of the conservationists had been forced to make\u00a0false confessions\u00a0under the threat of death.<\/p>\n

A source with detailed knowledge of the cases told CHRI at the time that some of the conservationists \u201cwere subjected to months of solitary confinement and psychological torture,\u00a0threatened\u00a0with death, threatened with being injected with hallucinogenic drugs, threatened with arrest and the death of family members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the detainees were also physically beaten up\u2026 all to force them to give false confessions against themselves,\u201d added the source who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals by Iranian security forces.<\/p>\n

As in the case of Seyed-Emami, who died in state custody, Iranian state-funded TV has repeatedly run sensationalist news reports and comments by hardline judicial officials all aimed at smearing the detainees, who have been denied the right to respond or speak freely to defend themselves.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s State Prisons Organization and judiciary to which it reports are responsible for the health and well-being of detainees but Iran has held no one accountable for Seyed-Emami\u2019s death, focusing instead on prosecuting his colleagues.<\/p>\n

International Calls for Iran to Release Conservationists\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UN has called the charges against the conservationists \u201chard to fathom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere in the world, including Iran, should conservation be equated to spying or regarded as a crime,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0UN human rights experts in February 2018. \u201cDetention of human rights defenders for their work is arbitrary in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHRI calls on the Iranian judiciary to dismiss any \u201cconfessions\u201d or statements obtained under duress and adds its voice to the growing chorus of calls from inside and outside Iran for the conservationists to be granted a fair trial and released immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of holding anyone accountable for Seyed-Emami\u2019s death, Iran has subjected his colleagues to 12 months of abuse while violating their right to counsel,\u201d said CHRI\u2019s Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi in a\u00a0press release\u00a0published January 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet emerging details tell a very different story of a group of conservationists being smeared and pressured to make false statements against themselves while being denied access to counsel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For interviews, contact:
\nHadi Ghaemi
\n+1-917-669-5996
\nhadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/p>\n

Visit our website:\u00a0www.iranhumanrights.org<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 30, 2019 \u2013 In their first trial session since being detained in Iran one year ago, eight conservationists learned today that the first half of their indictment is based<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[423,463,422,464,420,417,419,424,421,418],"class_list":["post-1425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-abdolreza-kouhpayeh","tag-abolqasem-salavati","tag-amir-hossein-khaleghi","tag-conservationists","tag-houman-jowkar","tag-morad-tahbaz","tag-niloufar-bayani","tag-sam-rajabi","tag-sepideh-kashani","tag-taher-ghadirian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1426,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions\/1426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}