Hamed Sepehri and Jafar Ebrahimi, two environmental activists from Bukan, northwest Iran, were sentenced to 18 months behind bars in the Urmia court on May 5th, on charges of “spreading propaganda against the state.”
The two environmental activists were arrested by the intelligence agents on March 11, 2018, and were temporarily released on bail of 50 million Tomans on April 17.
In a recent security crackdown the state-run ISNA news agency reported on May 21, 2018 that security forces in south of the country have arrested 20 environmental activists, bringing the total number of environmental activists in jail to 75, as one of th elawyers of the case, Payam Dorfeshan, said.
Earlier this month, more than 40 environmentalists, and some of their relatives were arrested May 7-8, 2018, in the southern Iranian harbor city of Bandar Lengeh and surrounding towns Lavaredin, Janah and Bastak in Hormozgan Province.
In a May 9 Instagram post that was deleted a few hours later, Iranian environmental activist Azar Sedaghati wrote that the homes of dozens of detained environmentalists and some of their relatives in southern Iran had been searched and that their communication devices had been confiscated.
13 environmentalists have been in prison for more than four months. They include Houman Jokar who leads the institute’s Asian leopard project, young scientist Taher Ghadirian, environmental expert Sam Rajabi, Niloufar Bayani, Jokar’s wife and a former UN environment adviser, Sepideh Kashani and Morad Tahbaz, an environment and cultural heritage protection activist and a Iranian American dual citizen.
