Kavous Seyed-Emami ( fa, کاووس سیدامامی; December 24, 1953 – February 8, 2018) was an Iranian-Canadian academic and conservationist. Seyed-Emami ran the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF) and was a sociology professor. In February 2018, Iran's judiciary said that he killed himself while in detention in Evin Prison, Tehran, because of the evidence against him in a spying case. This claim, including the alleged suicide, has been rejected by his family. Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland offered her condolences and stated that Canada expects "the Government of Iran to provide information and answers into the circumstances surrounding this tragedy." She welcomed the return of Seyed-Emami's sons back to Canada in March 2018 and asked the Government of Iran to lift the travel ban on Seyed-Emami's spouse, Maryam Mombeini.

Life

Seyed-Emami was a Western-educated Iranian. He returned to Iran after the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

and fought in the war against Iraq. He was a professor of Sociology at

Imam Sadiq University The Imam Sadiq University is an Islamic private university in Tehran, Iran. Established in 1982, the goal of the university is to bridge the gap between Islamic researches and modern studies, especially humanities. Imam Sadiq was established on ...

in Tehran and a visiting scholar at the University of Lethbridge in 2017. He was one of the founders of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), a private non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation and preservation of wildlife in Iran.

Arrest

Professor Kavous Seyed-Emami along with seven other environmentalists and fellow members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation was arrested on February 6, 2018, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Death

Professor Seyed-Emami, the founder of PWHF, died under suspicious circumstances in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran two days after his arrest. Iran's judiciary claimed the 65-year-old professor of sociology had committed suicide because of evidence of espionage against him but his family and acquaintances and human rights defenders have always refuted the claim. According to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), one of the Tehran-based lawyers representing the family has revealed that the autopsy result was never made public but a preliminary state medical examiner’s report "showed evidence of an injection on his skin" as well as “bruises on different parts of the body.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyed-Emami, Kavous 1953 births 2018 deaths Iranian conservationists Prisoners who died in Iranian detention Academic staff of Imam Sadiq University Islamic Republic of Iran Army soldiers of the Iran–Iraq War Ohio University alumni University of Oregon alumni Iranian sociologists Iranian translators Inmates of Evin Prison Canadian academics Iranian emigrants to Canada 20th-century translators Academics from Tehran

Life

Arrest

Death

See also

References