Environment

Radiofarda – An Iranian official has confirmed a major leak off an oil rig near Kharq Island in the Persian Gulf and said considering the spread of the contamination more equipment and reinforcement is required for the clean-up operation. The leak started at least a week ago but neither the Iranian Oil Ministry nor the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) …

HRW – An Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced at least six environmental experts detained since January 2018 after an unfair trial where the defendants apparently could not see the full dossier of evidence against them, Human Rights Watch said today. The court informed the detainees on November 20, 2019 that they had been convicted of “collaborating with the enemy state of the …

CHRI – Preliminary Sentences Range Between 6 and 10 Years, Two Still Awaiting Ruling No Evidence of Wrongdoing Ever Found November 20, 2019 – Six of the eight wildlife conservationists who have been detained in Iran since their arrest in January 2018 have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to ten years for espionage, a lawyer with knowledge of the …

CHRI – A man claiming to be a reporter in a pseudo-documentary about Iran’s detained conservationists that was aired by the state-controlled Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) organization on national television has been recognized as an interrogator by one of his victims. Ramin Seyed-Emami—whose father Kavous Seyed-Emami, a sociologist and conservationist died under suspicious circumstances in Tehran’s Evin Prison in …

Radiofarda – Iran’s capital Tehran has been blanketed by heavy smug this week, forcing schools to shut down and hospitals have admitted many more cases of heart and respiratory emergencies. The head of Environment and Sustainable Development at Municipality of Tehran says air pollution costs the capital of Iran up to $2.6 billion per year. But other major cities, specially …

Radiofarda – Dangerous air pollution has shut down kindergartens, elementary and special-needs schools in Iran’s capital Tehran and surrounding towns on Wednesday. Tehran’s governor announced that air-pollution indicator in most of the city has crossed the danger line for vulnerable people and now stands at 133. Acceptable pollution levels must be under 50. However, in ten areas of the 10-million …

Iran-HRM – The number of people who lost their lives following the Friday earthquake that struck Iran’s northwest provinces has risen due to lack of relief. At least five people were initially killed and hundreds more injured after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck East Azerbaijan province on Friday, according to Iran’s Seismological Center. One of the victims, 10-year-old Zahra Abedi was …

Radiofarda – Many children in the quake-hit city of Sarab, northwest Iran, are suffering from cold and frostbite, the town’s representative to Majles (parliament), Youssef Davoudi, has disclosed. “The bodies of these children are totally frostbitten,” Davoudi told Eastern Azarbaijan province’s session of crisis management on Saturday, November 9. “Regarding the [cold] climate of the quake-stricken city of Sarab, the …

RFL/RE – Iranian state-run TV has reported the number of people injured in a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on November 8 has jumped from more than 300 to 520. The November 9 report said the updated figure followed the end of rescue operations in more than 80 remote villages of Tark county in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, some 400 kilometers northwest …

CHRI – Fate of Detainees Unclear Despite Intervention by Supreme Leader Nearly two years after they were first detained in Tehran, eight conservationists have been charged with “cooperation with U.S. and Israeli enemy states against the Islamic Republic of Iran for the purpose of espionage for the CIA and Mossad,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. …