Seven Iranian environmentalist convicted of acting against national security and “collaboration with the United States” today [October 21] reached their 1000th day in prison with a deluge of warm wishes from their families and fellow citizens.

“A thousand days ago they took Sam Rajabi from his mother, family and friends,” tweeted Katy Rajabi on Tuesday with a photo of her jailed brother. “[They robbed him of his] young life, freedom, the sky, the sun and stars and the moon and nature. But no one could rob him of himself.”

"Today we mark the 1000th day of the imprisonment of our former UNEP colleague Niloufar Bayani. At this time, I once again call for clemency for her and fellow environmentalists, and for safe release to their families," Inger Andersen, the Executive Director at UN Environment Program, tweeted on Wednesday.

Sam Rajabi is serving six years, as are Amir-Hossein Khaleghi and Sepideh Kashani. Morad Tahbaz and Niloufar Bayani are serving 10-year sentences. Houman Jokar and Taher Ghadirian face eight years in jail. Only one of eight environmentalists imprisoned in 2018, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, who was sentenced to four years, was released on furlough in March when tens of thousands of prisoners were allowed out due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

All eight are members of the Persian World Heritage Foundation (PWHF), an NGO dedicated to the conservation of wildlife in Iran. The PWHF’s founder Professor Kavous Seyed-Emami, 63, the founder of the NGO, was arrested – reportedly by the IRGC Intelligence Unit -- at the same time, but around two weeks later his family was told he died in Tehran’s Evin Prison. Officials claimed he had committed suicide in his cell.

At least five of the eight have been on hunger strike in prison. Bayani has alleged in letters smuggled out of prison that she underwent psychological torture including threats of rape. Her letters, first made public by BBC’s Persian Service, included a claim she was shown torture equipment and syringes that interrogators said could paralyze or kill her. The lawyer representing another female detainee, Sepideh Kashani, said his client had faced similar treatment.

The sentences meted out to the environmentalists in February 2020 by a court held in secret – with the judiciary claiming the eight had collaborated with the United States and had received US money – followed an announcement by the Head of the Department of Environment Isa Kalantari that the Intelligence Ministry had found no evidence of spying.

“We chased it [with the judiciary] but we were told it was none of our business and that we shouldn’t meddle in their work,” Kalantari said in an interview with the reformist Arman-e Melli newspaper on October 3. “When they say these individuals are spies, they must have evidence that is not related to environmental issues of which we know nothing.”

In May 2018 the outspoken former reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi had also said in a tweet that the Intelligence Ministry was not pushing the case. According to him Intelligence Ministry experts had explicitly declared to members of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee that they had found no proof for the espionage allegations against the environmental activists.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Environment Program, International Union for Conservation of Nature, members of the European Parliament, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all urged Iran to release the environmentalists from prison.