In January 2018, the first group of environmental activists were arrested in Iran. They were charged with security crimes and some were charged with “spreading corruption on earth”.

With the anniversary of their arrest drawing near, Katayoun Rajabi, the sister of Sam Rajabi, one of the arrested activists, wrote an open letter to Javid Rahman, United Nation’s Special Reporter on Human Rights in Iran, and asked him to follow up this case. According to her, all the efforts of the family members of the prisoners have been futile.

Last year, Sam Rajabi, Mir Hossein Khaleghi, Houman Jokar, Taher Ghadirian, Nilufar Bayani, Sepideh Kashani, Morad Tahbaz, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, and Kavous Seyed Emami were arrested. Two weeks later, the Islamic Republic authorities announced that Kavous Seyed Emami has committed “suicide” in prison. A claim that Seyed Emami’s family and attorney strongly rejected. After that, a new wave of arresting the environmental activists began.

After Seyed Emami’s death, the spokesman for the judiciary announced that the arrested activists are charged with “espionage”. Payam Dorafshan, the attorney of Seyed Emami’s family told the media that the “spy tool” that the National TV had claimed to belong to his client, was a “fishing hook”.

In March, Kalameh website reported that the reason for the arrest of these activists was that they were resisting IRGC’s plan to “establish missile sites in protected areas”. According to the report, that was the reason for the charge of espionage. Due to the requests from the families of the activists, President Rouahni formed a committee to investigate the situation. After some investigations, Isa Kalantari, the head of Environmental Protection Organization, announced that there is no proof for the charges against the activists and they should be released.

The spokesman for the Judiciary responded that Kalantari’s conclusion was made without any access to the case file. Therefore, the activists stayed in prison.

The families of the activists even sent a letter to the Supreme Leader Khamenei to follow up their cases, but they received no response.

In September, another environmental activist, Farshid Haki who was also an attorney and a human rights activist, was found burnt to death in his car near his home.

In October, the charges for four of the activists changed to “spreading corruption on earth”, which could have a range of punishments from banishment to death.

According to the attorney Mohammad Hossein Aqasi, “it seems that the army has sent a letter to the supreme council of national security, which was directly sent to the prosecutor, and based on that letter, the charges changed for these activists.” The letter claims the activists were connected to CIA and Mossad.

However, previously the Intelligence Ministry had stated that these activists were not spies. But since their case became a national security matter, the process has completely changed.

With the beginning of Winter, another group of environmental activists were arrested in Kurdistan.

Many international groups and organizations have condemned these arrests and demanded their release, yet they are still “temporarily under arrest” for over a year without a clear charge or trial process.