Mohammad Zare

He is an environmental activist who was detained by the IRGC in January 2018 in a round-up of a group of environmental activists.

• <coverage-outsourcing id='21082'> Several environmental activists were arrested around this time, and transferred to Ward 2A of Evin prison. Kavous Seyyed Emami, Taher Ghadirian, Sam Rajabi, Houman Jokar, Morad Tahbaz, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Niloufar Bayani, Sepideh Kashani, Hassan Ragh, Aref Zare, Mohammad Zare, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Morteza Arianejad, Alireza Farhadzadeh and Mohammad Saleh Ahmadi are among those arrested in relation to this case, by the IRGC Department of Intelligence. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21578'> According to ISNA, the Tehran prosecutor, in addition to posing the charge of “espionage” through “collecting systematic data in the areas of missiles and defense,” has also accused them of “pursuing a three-pronged project in assisting the CIA and MUSAD in researching environmental data, infiltrating the Iranian Scientific Community, and gathering classified information from secret national sites including missile bases. It is claimed that the accused were ‘seeking to complete a joint mission along with the CIA and MUSAD in order to create various environmental crises in the country. Furthermore, ISNA has accused members of the Institute for Persian Heritage and Wildlife Preservation of ‘strategically placing cameras under the guise of observing environmental patterns, for the purpose of monitoring national missile activities, which would then be recorded and sent to foreign agents.” </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21083'> Four UN Human Rights experts have issued a statement calling for the immediate release and withdrawal of criminal charges against Iranian environmental activists. In this statement, while expressing concern over the targeting of such activists by security officials, they have called these arrests ‘inexcusable’, deeming suggestions of connection between environmental protection efforts and crimes such as ‘espionage’ and ‘acting against the state’ ’to be “hard to fathom.” Furthermore, they have called the “flimsy” accusations against Kavous Seyyed Emami to be part of a “foul, disturbing” game, thereby asking Iranian officials for an impartial and effective investigation into the death of Mr. Seyyed Emami. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21111'> The Center for Human Rights, in an interview with an informed source, reported that the detainees have not been charged yet or if they have, the charges have not been disclosed publicly, they were denied access to a lawyer and they had still not seen their families, six weeks after their arrest. The source has added that the families of the detainees, along with several university professors and colleagues of detainees, met with some of the parliamentarians, and spoke to the representatives about the installed cameras, the Cheetah project, and the areas in which they worked and how they worked. However, they have received no news from these representatives, as well as from the four-member committee that Hassan Rouhani had formed, following up on the death of Kavous Seyyed Emami and the situation of the detained environmental activists. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21335'> HRANA, quoting BBC, reported that the families of the detainees were told during their visit to Evin Prison that the detainees "are still banned from family visits and their interrogation period has been extended until the 25th of March." </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21408'> In an interview with the Center for Human Rights, an informed source announced that the arrest of detainees has been extended until the 25th of March. He added that except for Niloufar Bayani, none of the detainees had met with their families since their detention, and their lawyers were not allowed to meet with the client and enter the case. He also told the Center about Alireza Farhadzadeh: > Alireza's condition is worse than the rest of the detainees, since no news of him has been available since his arrest, and he has not even had a telephone call. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21564'> An informed source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran that the mother and father of Amirhossein Khaleghi and Houman Jokar and wife of Morad Tahbaz have met them in prison. The source said that the meeting had been in the presence of the interrogator for a few minutes and mentioned that physically, the detainees looked well. The source also told the Center: > There is no information about the activists arrested in the south of the country. Their families have no news of them, and this is disconcerting. Morteza Arianejad, Hassan Ragh, Aref Zare, Mohammad Zare, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Bandar Abbas, and Alireza Farhadzadeh, a wildlife documentary filmmaker, are some of the environmental activists in detention. The source also told the campaign that the intelligence agents had entered the house of Amirhossein Khaleghi without any notice. They searched the place and took a computer and camera off Amirhossein's landlord. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21755'> Tehran's prosecutor repeated the espionage charges and claimed that environmental activists were covers to get around the country's intelligence. He said "In one of the defendants' remarks, it is revealed that he was trained abroad and traveled to the country and carried out similar actions in the foreign sphere. One of the defendants received monthly salaries, had a secure computer, reported on a monthly basis and would go to the embassy related to the service in London or other countries, and had exchanged information." Jafari Dolatabadi also made a claim about Kaveh Madani, a former deputy of the environmental organization: > If people prefer to escape, this is due to the importance of preliminary investigations in the case, and if today we read on some sites that the deputy has left the country, it goes back to the investigation, because some defendants have realized that we are approaching them. Now, if someone has left the country, they will finally return. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21788'> Nearly 800 environmental activists sent a letter to the president, asking him to urgently address the situation of detained environmental activists and pay attention to their rights as detainees. "It is astonishing that all the activities and efforts made by Iran's environmental community in the last few decades to raise public awareness and to tackle the water crisis, climate change, the destruction of biodiversity and other environmental problems that require contact with professors and foreign universities, sampling natural areas with equipment such as telephoto cameras, as well as research and executive activities in official projects approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Forestry and Rangeland Organization, or attracting funds for protective projects from the related institutions are now considered suspicious and criminal." They called on the president to create a safe environment for environmental activists, to defend the rights of the accused and to prevent the mentioning of unproved allegations in the media, and to announce the results of the four-member committee's investigation formed by the president's order to investigate the case. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22141'> Leili Houshmand Afshar, Sam Rajabi’s mother, was able to visit him in Evin prison. She gave this news in an interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran, adding that her son’s mental condition had improved since her first visit. Furthermore, she added that she’d been told by the authorities not to speak about the kind of charges against her son, not to talk about the availability of a lawyer, not to speak any foreign languages, and not to hug or kiss her son. She was informed that a lawyer would not have access to her son’s file until the start of court proceedings. Previously, Mahmoud Behzadi, Sam Rajabi’s lawyer, had informed the Center that he and other lawyers advocating on behalf of environmental activists have all issued their respective ‘Power of Attorney’ documentation as of February 4th. Nonetheless, those arrested are not even informed that they have legal representation. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22140'> Azar Sedaghati, an environmental activist, posted on her Instagram page about 40 local residents and two rangers in Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan province. She said the houses of all these people were searched and the communications devices were all seized. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22104'> Mahmoud Sadeghi wrote on his Twitter account that during a meeting with his fellow MPs, the intelligence minister "explicitly, and documentally announced that they have not found any reason to deem the environmental activists to be spies." </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22672'> Isa Kalantari, head of the Environmental Protection Agency said: > Based on the assessment of the four-member government's committee, environmental activists should be released. He emphasized that there is no evidence that they are spies. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22741'> Mohammad Reza Tabesh, chairman of the environmental fraction of Parliament, said that according to experts from the Ministry of Intelligence, the environmental activists are not spies. He also talked about the condition of Kavous Seyyed Emami's wife: > We demanded the matter to be addressed but we have not yet received a response from the relevant authorities. Furthermore, Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, said: > The case of environmental activists will close shortly and detainees will be released. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22723'> He was released on bail </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22822'> Katayoun Rajabi, the sister of Sam Rajabi, in an open letter to Hassan Rouhani, complained about the continued arrest of environmental activists and the lack of accountability of the judiciary and security authorities. She urged the president to address this matter. In her letter, she cites the unclear nature of the organization that arrested her brother, bringing charges by the prosecutor and the state television without holding a trial, more than two months of interrogation without legal presentation, giving promises to families for regular meetings and failure to meet these promises, failure to allow regular phone calls, the manner of the magistrate behavior and threats to execute the prisoners in the event of further follow-up and lack of accountability on the part of the officials despite the Intelligence Minister's acknowledgment that the detainees are not spies. </coverage-outsourcing>