“Nowhere in the world, including Iran, should conservation be equated to spying or regarded as a crime,” said UN human rights experts in February 2018. “Detention of human rights defenders for their work is arbitrary in nature.” – United Nations Human Rights Experts

In January of 2018, nine Iranian conservationists, all members of the NGO Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, were arrested and imprisoned. One month later, a volunteer for PWHF was also detained.

From AnyHopeForNature:

The conservationists detained were Niloufar Bayani, Taher Ghadirian, Houman Jowkar, Sepideh Kashani, Amirhossein Khaleghi Hamidi, Sam Radjabi, Morad Tahbaz,  and Kavous Seyed Emami, with Mr. Seyed Emami sadly passing away two weeks later. In February, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, who had volunteered in some of PWHF’s activities, was imprisoned as well. All these conservationists have remained imprisoned to this day, suspected of using camera traps in ways to undermine the national security interests of Iran.

These are the men and woman working to save the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. It is thought barely 50 remain in the wild, and only in the country of Iran.

A timeline of events so far: 

February 2018: President of the I.R Iran, Hassan Rouhani, announced that he had assembled a fact-finding committee to determine whether there were grounds for detention.

April 2018: Nearly 800 Iranian celebrities and environmentalists signed a letter calling on President Hassan Rouhani to shed light on the case of the jailed conservationists. 

May 2018: The committee reported that the detained conservationists should be released due to the lack of evidence to support the allegations against them. The Intelligence Ministry, therefore, concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that these conservationists were involved in spy activities.

July 2018: Families of the eight conservationists reported their loved ones were being held in Tehran’s Evin prison without access to legal advice. The families have repeatedly asked the authorities to visit the detainees in prison to hear the circumstances of their detention, a request that was never answered.

October 2018: After being denied access to legal counsel for nine months, some were told to choose their lawyers from a list approved by the judiciary.

October 2018: Charges against four of the conservationists were elevated to “sowing corruption on earth”, which carries the death penalty as the highest sentence. Attorney Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, who has been officially allowed to represent one of the detainees, Sam Radjabi, highlighted that Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi had changed the charge from “espionage” to “corruption on earth” after he allegedly received a letter from “the army.”

According to IRNA, four of the eight conservationists have been charged with “corruption of earth,” three of them with “espionage” and one of them with “assembly and collusion against national security.” 

November 2018: An open letter signed by more than 369 signatories from 73 countries addressed to Ayatollah Larijani, head of the judiciary system including Jane Goodall, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Dr. Laurie Marker, Rebecca Klein, is published and shared globally.

January 2019: Eight Conservationists Tried in Iran on Basis of Retracted False “Confessions” 

“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’s retracted forced “confessions.” – Center for Human Rights in Iran

February 2019: Celebrities and journalists along with the global conservation community continue to plead for their release: 

While governments play out political games and innuendo, using scientists as a pawn, the clock is ticking for the Asiatic cheetah, and for the passionate conservationists whose sincere work is, to quote from Any Hope for Nature, in their own words:

“As a group of people who have developed a profound appreciation for the ecology and wildlife, we have come together to devote our efforts to the safeguarding of Iran’s delicate and scarred natural environment. By focusing on conservation, we try to put a balm on those scars and heal our wounds.”