عباس جعفری دولت‌آبادی، دادستان تهران گفته است که فعالان محیط زیست که در بهمن‌ماه جاری بازداشت شده‌اند برای آمریکا و اسرائیل از «اماکن حساس و حیاتی کشور از جمله پایگاه‌های موشکی» جاسوسی می‌کردند. او کاووس سیدامامی را که در بازداشت جان سپرده یکی از «مرتبطان اصلی افسر اطلاعاتی آمریکا در ایران» دانسته است.

به‌گزارش خبرگزاری میزان، عباس جعفری دولت‌آبادی، دادستان تهران سه‌شنبه ۲۴ بهمن توضیحاتی درباره بازداشت هشت تن از فعالان محیط زیست در روزهای ۴ و ۵ بهمن‌ ارائه داد.

دولت‌آبادی گفت: «متهمان پرونده با هدایت افسران اطلاعاتی سیا و موساد مأموریت‌های سه‌گانه‌ای را شامل موضوعات زیست محیطی، نفوذ در جامعه علمی ایران و جمع‌آوری اطلاعات از اماکن حساس و حیاتی کشور از جمله پایگاه‌های موشکی کشور، دنبال می‌کرده‌اند.»

دادستان تهران افزود، برخی از بازداشت‌شدگان «سفرهای متعدد» به اسرائیل داشته‌اند و اقرار کرده‌اند که اطلاعاتی را به‌منظور «ایجاد بحران در برخی از حوزه‌های زیست محیطی ایران» از طریق «عوامل پنهان» به آمریکا منتقل می‌کردند.

به‌گفته جعفری دولت‌آبادی: «در همین راستا دو نفر از افسران سازمان اطلاعات آمریکا با هویت معلوم در پوشش‌های مختلف به ایران و برخی از استان‌های کشور سفر کرده‌اند که از جمله اهداف آن‌ها، ایجاد مؤسسه‌ای در قالب فعالیت‌های زیست محیطی بوده و طبق اسناد موجود، این مؤسسه در حدود یک دهه قبل در ایران با طراحی آمریکایی‌ها برای تحقق اهداف مدنظر سرویس‌های اطلاعاتی سازمان سیا و موساد و جمع‌آوری اطلاعات طبقه‌بندی‌شده در حوزه‌های دفاعی و موشکی کشور ایجاد شده است.»

منظور دادستان تهران «مؤسسه حیات وحش میراث پارسیان» است که بازداشت‌شدگان از مدیران و کارکنان این مؤسسه هستند. علاوه بر کاووس سیدامامی، چند  تن دیگر از همکاران او در این مؤسسه به نام‌های هومن جوکار (مدیر پروژه یوز آسیایی)، سپیده کاشانی (همسر هومن جوکار)، نیلوفر بیانی (مشاور سابق برنامه محیط زیست سازمان ملل متحد)، مراد طاهباز (فعال محیط زیست و میراث فرهنگی) و سام رجبی (فعال محیط زیست و عضو سابق موسسه حیات وحش میراث پارسیان) نیز بازداشت شده‌اند.

خبر بازداشت آن‌ها به دلیل فشارهای امنیتی بر خانواده‌های‌شان مسکوت ماند اما با جان باختن کاووس سیدامامی در زندان اوین، اسامی بازداشت‌شدگان به رسانه‌ها راه یافت.

چند ماه پیش وب‌سایت‌های نزدیک به محافظه‌کاران از جمله خبرگزاری تسنیم مؤسسه حیات وحش میراث پارسیان را به برگزاری تورهای شکار و دست داشتن در شکار یک ماده یوز در منطقه حفاظت شده توران متهم کرده بود.

آذر سال جاری این سازمان مردم نهاد با انتشار بیانیه ای نسبت به اتهامات این نشریات که به‌زعم آن‌ها منتقد دولت هستند واکنش نشان داد و اعلام کر این مؤسسه از «هیچ رانتی» برخوردار نیست و اتهامات این نشریات برای تخریب چهره دولت و مسئولان سازمان محیط زیست است.

جعفری دولت‌آبادی کاووس سیدامامی را «عضو مؤثر و مدیر این مؤسسه» خوانده و گفته است که او و یکی از متهمان دیگر با نام مخفف «م. ط» که به‌نظر می‌رسد مراد طاهباز باشد، «از مرتبطان اصلی افسر اطلاعاتی آمریکا در ایران بوده به نحوی که این افسر اطلاعاتی در سفر به ایران در منزل کاووس سیدامامی استقرار می‌یافته است.»

دادستان تهران مرگ کاووس سیدامامی در زندان را نیز «خودکشی» دانسته است. کاووس سیدامامی ۶۴ ساله، دارای تابعیت ایرانی ـ کانادایی، مدیرعامل پیشین این مؤسسه و عضو هیأت علمی دانشگاه امام صادق از چهارم بهمن در بازداشت بود.

او نویسنده کتاب «اخلاق و محیط زیست: رهیافتی اسلامی» است. از او پژوهش‌ها و مقالات زیادی در زمینه جامعه‌شناسی سیاسی اسلام منتشر شده است.

کاووس سیدامامی چندمین مورد از بازداشتی‌هایی است که ظرف یک ماه گذشته  خبر خودکشی او به صورت ناگهانی به خانواده‌اش اعلام می‌شود. شماری از فعالان سیاسی و ناظران حقوق بشر در ایران درباره علت واقعی مرگ این بازداشتی‌ها و دلایل اعلام شده از سوی مسئولان قضایی تردیدهایی را مطرح کرده‌اند.

عفو بین‌الملل نیز خواهان تحقیقات مستقل از چگونگی مرگ کاووس سیدامامی شده است. مگدلنا مغربی، معاون شمال آفریقا و خاورمیانه عفو بین‌الملل مرگ او را مشکوک خوانده و گفته: «او در زندان اوین جایی که بازداشت شدگان تحت نظارت مستمر هستند و تمام وسایل شخصی از آن‌ها گرفته می‌شود، بازداشت بود و امکان خودکشی در چنین شرایطی تقریبا محال است.»

عفو بین‌الملل جلوگیری مقامات ایرانی از انجام تحقیقات مستقل در مورد مرگ سیدامامی را «نشان از یک تلاش عامدانه و برنامه‌ریزی شده برای پنهان کردن هرگونه شواهدی از شکنجه‌ و قتل احتمالی» دانست.

دیده‌بان حقوق بشر هم‌صدا با عفو بین‌الملل خواهان انجام تحقیقات مستقل در مورد مرگ‌های مشکوک از جمله مرگ کاووس سید امامی شد و گفت قوه قضائیه ایران به وظایف خود در برابر قربانیان و خانواده‌های آن‌ها عمل نمی‌کند.

رامین سیدامامی، معروف به کینگ‌رام، خواننده و فرزند کاووس سیدامامی هم دوشنبه ۲۳ بهمن در حساب‎های کاربری خود در توییتر، تلگرام و اینستاگرام اعلام کرده بود همراه با آرش کیخسروی و پیام درفشان، وکیلان دادگستری به پزشکی قانونی و دادسرای ناحیه ۲۷ مراجعه کرده، مستندات را دیده و پرونده قضایی تشکیل داده است. او گفت: «وکلا پیگیر تکمیل مراحل قانونی پرونده‌اند.»

همچنین لیلی هوشمندافشار، مادر سام رجبی، یکی دیگر از بازداشت‌شدگان به کمپین حقوق بشر در ایران گفته است که از لحظه بازداشت فرزندش تاکنون هیچ خبری از وضعیت او ندارد و پیگیری‌هایشان نیز بی‌پاسخ مانده است.

دولت کانادا هم از جمهوری اسلامی خواسته است تا درباره مرگ کاووس سیدامامی تحقیقات لازم را انجام دهد. ‎

محمد رضا عارف، رئیس فراکسیون امید مجلس شورای اسلامی در آستانه سالگرد پیروزی انقلاب خبر درگذشت کاووس سیدامامی در زندان را «بسیار ناگوار» خواند و نوشت «قوه قضائیه باید هر چه سریعتر گزارش شفاف و روشنی در این خصوص به مردم ارائه دهد و با خاطیان برخورد کند.‎»

محمدباقر نوبخت، سخنگوی دولت، هم سه‌شنبه ۲۴ بهمن مسئول مرگ‌های مشکوک در زندان‌ها، را به‌طور تلویحی قوه قضائیه دانست و گفت رئیس جمهوری نیز «نگران» وضعیت زندانی‌ها است.

دادستان تهران در سخنان روز سه‌شنبه خود همان اتهام قبلی را که سه روز پیش به این فعالان محیط زیست نسبت داده بود تکمیل کرد و گفت: «اعضای این شبکه در برخی از مناطق استراتژیک کشور تعدادی دوربین در ظاهر برای رصد امور زیست محیطی نصب کرده بودند که در واقع پوششی برای رصد فعالیت‌های موشکی کشور بوده و تصاویر و اطلاعات ثبت شده را برای بیگانگان ارسال می‌نموده‌اند.»

A day after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani proposed a referendum to heal divisions in Iran, a group of 15 civil and political activists inside and outside Iran issued their own call for a public vote — though their approach was very different. They appealed to the United Nations to supervise a referendum to decide the future system of government in Iran, describing the Islamic Republic as “incapable of reform.” 

The statement is signed by:

- Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer and human rights activist

- Shirin Ebadi, Noble Peace Prize laureate, lawyer and defender of human rights

- Narges Mohammadi, human rights activist

- Payam Akhavan, lawyer, professor of law and a member of the Court of Arbitration at the Hague

- Jafar Panahi, film director

- Mohsen Sazegara, Journalist and pro-democracy political activist

- Mohammad Seifzadeh, lawyer, former judge and human rights activist

- Hassan Shariatmadari, opposition politician and pro-democracy activist

- Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, journalist and pro-democracy activist

- Abolfazl Ghadyani, reformist activist

- Mohsen Kadivar, philosopher and reformist activist

- Kazem Kardavani, sociologist

- Mohsen Makhmalbaf, film director

- Mohammad Maleki, academic and pro-democracy activist

- Mohammad Nourizad, filmmaker, former journalist and human rights activist

Over the last 40 years, says the statement, not only have the pains and sufferings of the people of Iran not been lessened, they have increased because the Iranian people are forced to live a double life and because they are constantly pressured to display their religious commitment. The statement says: 

“As a result of ignorance, structural inefficiency and institutionalized corruption, the authorities are unable to solve people’s ordinary, everyday problems. Discrimination, corruption and astronomical embezzlements are running amok. Many unjust laws lead to discrimination and encourage violence. And the judiciary, instead of administering justice and executing even these defective laws, is carrying out the political intentions of the rulers.”

The Main Obstacle

Pointing to the arrests of civil and social activists, the statement declares that “the regime has become the main obstacle in the way of Iranian people’s progress and liberty by hiding behind a theological shelter, abusing religion, lying, duplicity, opacity, ignoring public opinion, spurning the rule of law and the principles of human rights, institutionalized violations of freedom and the rights of the people, utter inability in solving political, economic, social and cultural crisis and closing all doors to legal oversight and peaceful reform.”

Although the signatories call for a referendum to decide the system of the government, they do have a vision, that of “a secular parliamentary democracy based on popular free elections, thorough observance of human rights and eradicating all institutionalized discriminations, especially [those standing in the way of] complete equality for women, ethnic groups and religions in all cultural, social, political and economic fields.”

It is worth considering the signatories and their current situations. Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Narges Mohammadi, Abolfazl Ghadyani, Mohammad Nourizad, Mohammad Seifzadeh, Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and Mohammad Maleki all live in Iran and have signed the statement despite the risks and the threats they face. Narges Mohammadi is currently serving a sentence at Evin Prison. The fact that Abolfazl Ghadyani, one of the best-known reformist political prisoners, signed the statement could be a sign of a political realignment in Iran.

“We Need Everyone”

In a speech on Sunday, February 11 to mark the 39th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, President Rouhani called for unity. He said,“Today, we need everyone, including principlists, reformists, moderates and everyone who recognizes the constitution, for the country’s development and progress.”

“The constitution should be our point of reference,” he said. “If we disagree on some issues, we should refer to Article 59.”

According to Article 59 of the Iranian constitution, “in extremely important economic, political, social, and cultural matters, the function of the legislature may be exercised through direct recourse to popular vote through a referendum. Any request for such direct recourse to public opinion must be approved by two-thirds of the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.”

Crucially, it is parliament that has the power to call a referendum, not the president of the Islamic Republic. 

Soon after Rouhani’s speech, Iran’s conservatives lost no time in attacking him. Ezzatolah Zarghami, former head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), dismissed Rouhani’s proposal as “in bad taste,” and Abdollah Ganji, managing editor of the newspaper Javan, an affiliate of IRIB, criticized Rouhani, questioning whether, by proposing a referendum on the 39th anniversary of the victory of the revolution, such a high Islamic Republic official could be considered to be “politically competent.”

The most recent face-off between the Islamic Republic security establishment and

 Gonabadi Sufis over the possible arrest of their guru Noor Ali Tabandeh has ended with the retreat of security forces.

On Sunday, February 4, after hours of standoff between uniformed and plainclothes officers and hundreds of dervishes, who had gathered around Tabandeh’s house to shield him from arrest, Brigadier-General Masoud Mosaddegh arrived at the scene, promised to remove security agents, and asked them to disperse [Persian link].  

Gonabadi Sufis face constant harassment and arrest by the security forces of the Islamic Republic, but the dervishes who had gathered around their guru’s house insist that his arrest is a “red line” for them.

The Gonabadi Sufi Order is one of the three main branches of the Nematollahi Sufi Order that originated with Shah Nematollah Wali, a Sufi master of the 14th and 15th centuries. Gonabadi dervishes, the best known of his followers, say they believe in peace, security and equality and shun violence and politics. They believe that to arrive at truth one must follow both sharia and tarighat (the mystic “way” toward the divine) and this is not possible without a “guide” or a “mentor.” Noor Ali Tabandeh is the current grand master of the Gonabadi dervishes. 

Noor Ali Tabandeh holds a PhD in law and has defended many opposition figures in Iran, both under the monarchy and under the Islamic Republic. He was a founder of the Society for Defending Freedom in 1985 and he was a critic of Velayat-e Faqih or the “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist,”  the founding principle of the Islamic Republic. In 1990 he was among 90 political figures who signed a strongly-worded letter to the then-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, condemning the policies and practices of the Islamic Republic. For this he spent eight months in prison during which his wife died.

Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Tabandeh defended dissident figures such as Ayatollah Khomeini’s brother Ayatollah Pasandideh and Ayatollah Jalal Al-Din Taheri Esfahani, Isfahan’s Friday Prayers Leader. One of his best-known clients after the revolution was Abbas Amir-Entezam, an ambassador and a one-time deputy to Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, who is now the longest-held political prisoner in the Islamic Republic. Under Bazargan, Noor Ali Tabandeh served for a brief period as a deputy at both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, but he resigned of his own choice in 1980.

In 1996, following the death of Mahboub Ali Shah, who was the grand master of the Gonabadi Sufi Order, he succeeded him as Ali Shah had wished in his will.

Sermons but no Ceremonies

Five days a week, the followers of Noor Ali Tabandeh attend his morning sermons. On the remaining two days, Thursdays and Fridays, his sermons are open to all, be it dervishes or otherwise. On Monday and Friday nights Gonabadi dervishes organize gatherings around Iran and in other countries. The order does not have established ceremonies and or a specific way of dressing. The dervishes always say they only think about peace, friendship and kindness, not governing or politics. Tabandeh says that dervishes are free in their individual lives. And the dervishes say that although they stay away from politics, they do stand up to “injustice”.

The dervishes also claim to have “the answer to the most important question that human beings ask.” Kasra Nouri, a journalist and a Gonabadi dervish who has recently been released from detention, says that he personally believes this key two-part question was posed by the 13th-century Iranian mystic poet Rumi in his verse: “From where do I come? For what did I come?” He says Sufis believe that they have the answer to this question and they know what they want in life. “Perhaps,” says Nouri, “our difference with others is that we know what we want and why we are alive. Our actions and our beliefs are in harmony with each other and we practice what we say. We seek the truth with the guidance of Dr. Tabandeh on a path of compassion, equality and friendship.”

Heartfelt Certainty

Sufism is not inherited and Sufis do not proselytize. Gonabadi dervishes follow Shia commandments including praying five times a day and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. But if an individual wants to join them they are required to visit Noor Ali Tabandeh. If he decides that the person has arrived at a heartfelt certainty, then he or she will be able to join his circle of Sufis.

According to Kasra Nouri, over the last two decades, the conduct and the thinking of the Gonabadi dervish order has been polished by the legal teachings of Tabandeh. “Today many thinkers and scientists are trying to find a way out of violence and extremism that has spread around the globe,” he says. “Now they have turned to studying Sufism to find the answer.” He also emphasizes that those accepted as dervishes are “free in their social activities and in their decision-making.”

Tabandeh’s pamphlets and speeches are the among the most important reference texts for Gonabadi dervishes. But other books, including one by Tabandeh’s father Saleh Ali Shah, are also considered must-reads. Most of these books emphasize the importance of shunning violence and politics.

But what about Tabandeh himself, who served in the government of the Islamic Republic, albeit for a brief time? “As a free-spirited individual and citizen, a dervish can step into politics to achieve peace, freedom, calm and security,” says Kasra Nouri. “Each individual needs to manage his own life in step with divine intentions, peace and enlightenment. But Sufism is not after governing. Government has no value for us. Although many Sufis such as Nasir al-Din al-Tusi [a 13th-century Persian philosopher, scientist, and mathematician] served as viziers and in positions of power they remained dervishes.”

A Tight-knit Group

Many believe that the the Islamic Republic harasses Gonabadi dervishes because they are such a tight-knit community and the regime views them as a potential threat. It was this closeness that enabled dervishes to respond quickly to the threat of Tabandeh’s arrest. But Kasra Nouri says their actions are only defensive and that they are only demanding the security they deserve. “To defend the sanctity of our beliefs we stand up as long as we are alive,” he says, “even if they aim their guns at us.”

Critics of Gonabadi dervishes say that Tabandeh’s followers never question or criticize the his teachings and compare his leadership to Velayat-e Faqih, although Tabandeh has long been a critic of the Guardianship of the Islamist Jurist. Kasra Nouri rejects this criticism. “Being a dervish is a matter of heart,” he says. “We love him and visit him because he is our teacher and guide.”

Nouri emphasizes that these teachings demand followers to stand up to injustice. “Avoiding violence is a sort of ideology for us,” he says, “meaning that we never forget that the other side is human, too. They might do something out of ignorance, so we hold off. You must be humane to be a dervish. How you dress and what job you have makes no difference. In 2014 when they bloodied and beat Gonabadi dervishes, Dr. Tabandeh called them ‘ignorant brothers.’ Defense must be moral and humane. In the recent episode [outside Tabandeh’s home] nobody was hurt. It was only to tell the regime that he is our red line.”

Divide and Rule

. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the political playbook. The expression is thought to have been coined more than 2,000 years ago by Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great.

Iranians like to cite the colonial British as the ones who did it best, backing rival rulers and tribes in India and Africa against one another.

They don’t see how their own politicians have not only learned the technique, but applied it with appalling success. 

Take the uprising in June 1992 in Mashhad. The religious authorities in charge of the shrine of the 8th Imam Reza decided they wanted to enlarge their compound. When the bulldozers moved in and started to level an adjacent residential area of dilapidated homes and shacks called Mahalle Tollab, it caused a riot. 

The authorities, taken aback, knew they had to weaken the protesters’ solidarity by creating factions.  

“The people whose houses were seized and destroyed, “ they said, “demand to be distinguished from provocateurs and saboteurs." The authorities duly identified some “provocateurs and saboteurs” and hanged them, which acted as a salutary message to everyone else. In less than two weeks, the protests dwindled away.

It’s not an isolated example. The riots in Shiraz and Arak in 1992 and Iranshahr in 1995 were similarly quelled by blaming the unrest on a criminal few while authorities paid lip service to the legitimate complaints of the “genuine poor.”

Fast forward to the recent wave of protests in more than 80 towns and cities.  

At a press conference, President Rouhani was at it again.

“The protesters not only have economic demands,” he said, “but they want changes to foreign policy, regional policy and the way the country is run.” In other words, the legitimate complaints of the poor were being co-opted by those old bogeymen – political saboteurs (and, in another familiar trope, they were being egged on by shadowy foreign agents).

Interestingly, in referring to the political demands, Rouhani signalled he was aware of some of the most incendiary slogans, notably “Death to the Dictator”; “Death to Khamenei”; “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrifice myself for Iran” (a criticism of Iran’s support of Hezbollah); and slogans in support of the return of the Pahlavi monarchy.

There are signs the regime is rattled. During the protests we learned that the Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) was ordered to examine how much ordinary people detested the ruling theocracy. The presidential administration also released the three-year-old survey (conducted by ISPA’s head of strategic studies, Hessameddin Ashna) showing that about half of Iranians (49 percent) thought that woman’s hijab should be a matter of personal choice.

Since the revolution, some dissent against bad governance and economic hardship has been tolerated. For example, the labor researcher Zahra Ayatollahi reports that there have been over 900 picket lines and strikes in the past 11 months alone – that is since the beginning of the current Persian calendar year in March 2017.

When the dissent grew too strident though, the technique of putting it down remained the same. First a few days of non-reaction by the authorities, then a very public identification of the so-called agitators and provocateurs. Then the security forces moved in to quietly arrest the protests’ leaders one by one, as the politicians paid loud lip service to the pain and frustration of the working poor.  

In the early days of the revolution, as the late Ayatollah Khomeini was deftly outmaneuvering his leftist, liberal and Islamist rivals, a wise old man in Tehran gave me a warning in the form of an old story.

Once upon a time, a vineyard was stripped in the night by a group of three thieves. The owner of the vineyard was shocked to learn that two of the thieves were locals – the mullah and the teacher. Only one was a professional bandit. He knew the community would resist casting the blame on the local men, so he came up with a cunning plan.

“Well you are all thieves,” said the vineyard’s owner to the three men. “But the teacher is a respected man who selflessly devotes himself to teaching the children of our village, so I am willing to forget his crime and in future, let him take as many grapes as he likes for his own private enjoyment.”

The other two thieves were furious at the injustice of this, and beat him until he confessed his involvement and cried to be arrested.

By this time a crowd had gathered. The owner then addressed the mullah. “As for you,” he said. “You are supposed to be a religious man upholding our values and yet you participate in the physical beating of our village teacher. And furthermore shared in enjoying stolen goods. You should be ashamed.”

 The villagers were convinced, and moved in to handcuff their mullah and lead him away to detention.

 Of course later, when they realized that a professional bandit was roaming free in their village and that he’d masterminded the theft of a local vineyard, they arrested him too.

So the principle of divide and conquer is spelled out in our folk tales, and our regime is still using it on us. As long as they’re allowed to get away with it, we are in for many more years of bad governance, arbitrary arrests, brutality and social injustice.  

Almost three months have passed since the disastrous earthquake in West Iran (Sarpol e Zahab), in which more than 600 people lost their lives. Many people continue to face hardship, having lost loved ones or finding themselves homeless and forced to live in tents. These photographs show some of the women affected by the quake, and their attempts to earn enough money to survive and maintain some semblance of normal family life. 

The tweet by celebrated Iranian musician Ramin Seyed-Emami (aka King Raam) was shocking, even to many Iranians who are used to the stories of atrocities in Iranian prisons. "The news of my father's passing is impossible to fathom. Kavous Seyed Emami was arrested on Wednesday 24 January 2018, and the news of his death was released to my mom, Maryam, on Friday the 9th of February. I still can’t believe this." 

Seyed-Emami's father, Kavous, was a notable Iranian sociologist, university professor and environmentalist who died in Tehran’s Evin prison less than a month after he was arrested. 

The Iranian Political Science Association said Seyed-Emami was "not only a unique scholar and a hard-working researcher in political science but a honorable and ethical man and, all in all, a unique personality." 

Kavous Seyed-Emami taught at Tehran’s Imam Sadegh University (ISU) and was a trustee of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), an NGO known for its efforts to save the Asiatic cheetah, an endangered species, only 50 of which are thought to be left in all of Iran. The cheetah is widely treasured as a national symbol of Iran.

Seyed-Emami was arrested on January 24, along with seven other environmental activists. All were charged with espionage. 

Seyed-Emami’s son, the New York-based punk rock singer King Raam from the band Hypernova, first reported the news. 

“They’ve told us he has committed suicide… I still don’t believe it, we don’t believe it,” King Raam tweeted in Persian, before posting a similar tweet in English. 

“The family is in total shock, they don’t believe this could have been suicide for a minute,” a New York-based source close to the family told IranWire. 

Many Iranians went on to social media, reacting with shock. Prague-based Iranian journalist Kayvan Hosseini called it “one of the most shocking deaths in Iranian prisons.”

“I can’t believe this news. I can seriously say that I had never met a professor wiser and more honorable than him,” one person posted on Twitter. 

“I am still in shock,” tweeted Ghassem Rahimi, a Tehran-based graduate student of political science in Persian. 

Many expressed skepticism that a prisoner recently arrested on national security charges could have possibly had the opportunity to commit suicide given the strict controls in prison. For a start, prisoners are not allowed any metal objects inside the jail, and they are not allowed to take long showers. 

Just as the news of Seyed-Emami’s death was hitting the headlines, Tehran’s prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi declared that a group of environmentalists had been arrested and charged with espionage. They were “gathering classified information in strategic spheres under the cover of conducting scientific and environmental projects,” Dowlatabadi said, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency. 

Seyed-Emami was a respected scholar who taught at ISU's Faculty of Islamic Sciences and Political Science. ISU is an establishment institution, known for training cadre for the Islamic Republic. Seyed-Emami received his PhD in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1991 after having previously received a Bachelor’s degree and two Master’s degrees in the United States, where he had studied since the early 1970s. He was widely published in Iran and abroad, in Persian and English. He was a dual national, a citizen of both Iran and Canada. 

The PWHF’s collaboration with the government of President Hassan Rouhani on the cheetah conservation project had been a cause for controversy before. Forces opposed to Rouhani, which control the judiciary and much of the Iranian establishment, had long campaigned against Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of Rouhani’s vice presidents and head of the Department of Environment during his first term.

Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, a fellow trustee of PWHF, was arrested at the same time Seyed-Emami was. Tahbaz had been attacked by hardline media outlets due to his alleged involvement in construction activities in the US and Israel. Tasnim News Agency, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), alleged that Ebtekar and Tahbaz were collaborating to organize hunting tours in Iran targeting endangered species such as MacQueen’s bustard (known as the Asian houbara in Iran), Laristani mouflons (a type of wild sheep) and even the treasured Asiatic Cheetah. According to the London-based website Kayhan, which is known for presenting an anti-regime line, Ebtekar’s removal from the Department of Environment might have been due to her links with PWHF. 

Hooman Jokar, head of the Asiatic Cheetah Project; Niloufar Bayani, Jokar’s wife and a United Nations Environment Programme project advisor, and two other environmentalists associated with the PWHF were among the other people arrested.

The Iranian Political Science Association said Seyed-Emami was "not only a unique scholar and a hard-working researcher in political science, but an honorable and ethical man and, all in all, a unique personality."

کاووس سیدامامی، جامعه‌شناس تحصیل‌کرده آمریکا و شهروند ایرانی‌ـ‌کانادایی در زندان اوین به شکلی مشکوک درگذشت. انجمن جامعه‌شناسی ایران و انجمن علوم سیاسی ایران در دو بیانیه جداگانه به «مرگ غیرعادی» او واکنش نشان دادند. مقام‌های کانادایی نیز از آغاز بررسی این حادثه سخن گفتند.

انجمن جامعه‌شناسی ایران یکشنبه ۲۲ بهمن در بیانیه‌ای نسبت به مرگ این استاد دانشگاه امام صادق اظهار تأسف کرد و از مسئولان ایران خواست تا درباره آن توضیح دهند.

این بیانیه درباره سیدامامی، عضو کمیته روابط بین‌الملل انجمن جامعه‌شناسی ایران می‌نویسد:

اخبار منتشرشده درباره وی در باور نمی‌گنجد و انتظار می‌رود مسئولان امر درباره این ضایعه دردناک پاسخگو باشند و به افکار عمومی توضیح دهند.

انجمن علوم سیاسی ایران نیز او را «استاد فاضل و کم‌نظیر علوم سیاسی ایران» و «انسانی شریف و اخلاق‌گرا» توصیف کرد.

سرکوب فعالان محیط زیستی

کاووس سیدامامی مدیر عامل سازمان مردم‌نهاد «حیات وحش میراث پارسیان» بود که هدفش را حفاظت از گونه‌های در معرض خطر حیات وحش ایران، به‌ویژه یوزپلنگ ایرانی اعلام کرده است.

نخستین بار رامین سیدامامی که با نام «کینگ‌رام» به عنوان خواننده یک گروه موسیقی سبک «پست‌پانک» شناخته می‌شود، خبر مرگ پدرش را منتشر کرد. به گفته او، دادسرای انقلاب تهران مادرش مریم ممبینی را احضار کرده و «به طور ناگهانی» خبر «خودکشی» همسرش را به او اعلام کرده‌است.

ساعاتی پیش از آن عباس جعفری دولت‌آبادی، دادستان تهران از دستگیری هفت «متهم به جاسوسی» خبر داده بود که به ادعای او، «در قالب اجرای پروژه‌های علمی و محیط زیستی» اطلاعات محرمانه جمع‌آوری می‌کرده‌اند.

سیدامامی در حالی به جاسوسی متهم شده که حدود یک‌سال پیش در گفتگو با وب‌سایت خبری «مشرق‌نیوز»، نزدیک به سپاه پاسداران گفته بود «نباید به دونالد ترامپ [رئیس‌جمهوری آمریکا] فرصت ائتلاف‌سازی علیه ایران داده شود» و «تقویت بنیه دفاعی کشور یکی از راه‌های اصلی جلوگیری از خطر آمریکا است.»

این متهمان چهارم بهمن‌ماه بازداشت شده‌اند. عضو خانواده یکی از این بازداشت‌شدگان هفتم بهمن از دستگیری چندین مدیر و کارمند «حیات وحش پارسیان» خبر داد. شمار دقیق بازداشت‌شدگان مشخص نیست، اما به گزارش کمپین حقوق بشر ایران، شمار آنها نزدیک ۱۰ تن بوده است.

مشخص نیست چرا دادستان تهران دو روز پس از مرگ غیرعادی سیدامامی خبر بازداشت این متهمان را که به دو هفته پیش مربوط است، بدون اشاره به درگذشت این فعال محیط زیست اعلام کرده است.

محمود صادقی، نماینده تهران در مجلس شورای اسلامی در پیامی توئیتری درباره مرگ غیرعادی سیدامامی نوشت: «علت را از مسئولان ذیربط جویا شدم؛ بعضی پاسخ نمی‌دهند بعضی هم گفتند پیگیری کردیم اطلاعی بدست نیاوردیم.»

 محمود صادقی

نزدیک به ۱۰۰ مغازه در بازار البسه تهران در آتش سوخت. سخنگوی سازمان آتش‌نشانی تهران می‌گوید این حادثه تلفات جانی نداشت.

جلال ملکی سخنگوی سازمان آتش‌نشانی تهران از وقوع آتش‌سوزی در بازار تهران خبر داد. به گفته او این حادثه در یک پاساژ قدیمی در خیابان ۱۵ خرداد اتفاق افتاد.

ملکی گفت که آتش‌نشان‌ها پس از ۱۰ ساعت توانسته‌اند آتش‌سوزی را مهار کنند.

او با بیان اینکه علت حادثه از سوی کارشناسان آتش نشانی در دست بررسی است، گفت که پیش از این «بارها نسبت به وضعیت ایمنی در بازار تهران هشدار داده شده است».

در پیوند با همین موضوع امیر قدیمی‌نژاد رئیس اتحادیه بنکداران تهران «فرسودگی و غیر‌استاندارد بودن سیم‌کشی برق» را علت این حادثه اعلام کرد.

او به شبکه خبر صدا و سیما جمهوری اسلامی گفت: انفجار یک کنتور برق سبب آتش‌سوزی در بازار تهران شده است.

به گفته قدیمی‌نژاد در این حادثه بیش از ۹۰ مغازه دچار حریق شد.

او خسارت مالی این آتش‌سوزی را بیش از ۱۰ میلیارد تومان برآورد کرد.

خبرگزاری‌های ایران جمعه ۲۰ بهمن نیز از وقوع آتش سوزی در سالن تئاتر «علامه فرزان» بیرجند خبر دادند. پیشتر نیز ساختمان وزارت نیرو دچار حریق شد.

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