Calls for Environmental Activists to be Released as COP26 Begins in Glasgow

As the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) got underway in Glasgow, Scotland, human rights groups highlighted the harassment and imprisonment of environmental activists around the globe — including in the Islamic Republic.

On October 31, the eve of the summit, the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran (CFPPI) appealed to Iranian officials to release environmental activists jailed in Iran.

Shiva Mahboubi, the spokeswoman for CFPPI, said they had written an open letter to leaders to immediately and unconditionally release environmental activists held in Evin Prison, and urged supporters to appeal to COP26 delegates and their governments to do the same.

She said the letter not only demands freedom for environmental activists but was also drafted to encourage the families and supporters of jailed activists to share information about their cases, including the harassment they had endured because of their relationship with the targeted groups and individuals.

Mahboubi said the Islamic Republic considers these types of awareness-raising activities as “propaganda against the regime,” a charge used on a routine basis against activists and journalists.

“While the important issues of climate change are discussed at COP26, the Islamic government in Iran, whose representatives have also been invited to this conference, is arresting and torturing activists raising awareness of the effect of climate change in Iran," the letter, addressed to Alok Sharma, president of the COP26, reads.

Among the environmental activists currently jailed are Morad Tahbaz, Hooman Jokar, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Taher Ghadirian, Niloufar Bayani and Sepideh Kashani. They, along with Abdolreza Kouhpayeh and Kavous Seyed-Emami, were arrested in February 2018 on charges of espionage. Seyed-Emami died a few days after being detained. Authorities claimed he committed suicide, which his family disputes.

The others were sentenced to a total of 58 years in prison after two years of “temporary” detention.

Abdolreza Kouhpayeh was later released from prison in March 2020 following a directive from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. As many as 85,000 political prisoners were released to cut down on coronavirus cases in Iranian prisons. Kouhpayeh was one of them.

COP26 started on Sunday, October 31 and will continue until Friday, November 12.

President Ebrahim Raisi has not travelled to to Scotland to attend the summit along with other world leaders.

Prior to the conference, a former member of the European Parliament and the families of several prisoners who had been executed since the Islamic Republic was established had called for the arrest of Raisi, who sat on the so-called “death panel” that resulted in the deaths of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

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