Iran Claims Environmentalist Who Died in Prison Was Mossad, CIA Agent

A renowned Iranian-Canadian environmentalist who died in an Iran prison was part of an espionage network set up by Israel’s Mossad and the CIA, according to Tehran’s chief prosecutor.

Kavous Seyed-Emami, a 63-year-old professor of sociology at Imam Sadeq University in Tehran and the managing director of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation, was found dead in his cell last Friday.

As Breitbart News reported, his son and the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran say that authorities told Seyed-Emami’s family that he committed suicide in custody. This came a fortnight after his arrest along with seven members of his NGO, something the family described as suspicious following other detainee deaths.

خبر مرگ پدرم، کاووس سیدامامی، برایم باور کردنی نیست. کاووس در ۴ بهمن دستگیر شد و ناگهان از دادسرا مادرم، مریم ممبینی، را جمعه ۱۹ بهمن ۱۳۹۶ احضار می‌کنند و خبر مرگ همسرش را به او می‌دهند. می‌گویند خودکشی کرده…. هنوز باور نمی‌کنم، نمی‌کنیم. The news of my father’s passing is impossible to fathom. Kavous Seyed Emami was arrested on Wednesday 24 January 2018, and the news of his death was released to my mom, Maryam, on Friday the 9th of February. They say he committed suicide. I still can’t believe this. #كاووس_سيدامامى

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Now Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi alleges that the NGO was set up “about a decade ago” as a cover to collect “classified information in defense and missile fields.”

“Defendants in the case, under the guidance of the CIA and Mossad intelligence officers, have pursued a triple mission focused on the environment, infiltrating the scientific community, and collecting information from the country’s sensitive and vital centers, including missile bases,” he said, according to the judiciary-linked Mizanonline news agency.

He said Emami was one of the main contacts for U.S. agents and an intelligence officer had stayed at his home.

“Members of this network installed cameras in strategic areas under cover of monitoring the environment, while in fact monitoring the country’s missile activities,” Dolatabadi said.

Reuters reports that Canada wants to know more about the circumstances surrounding Seyed-Emami’s death.

“We are seriously concerned by the situation surrounding the detention and death of Mr. Seyed-Emami,” Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said in a statement.

“We expect the Government of Iran to provide information and answers into the circumstances surrounding this tragedy. We will continue to use every means at Canada’s disposal to seek further information.”

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