Detained environmental activists Mohsen Dadgar, Saeid Dadgar and Yasser Saberi were recently transferred from the Revolutionary Guards’ Shahramfar detention centre in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, to the city’s central prison after their interrogation.
The activists were arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on 20 June while attempting to extinguish forest fires caused by IRGC shelling on Mount Kusalan.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has learned that the three activists have been placed in the quarantine ward of the prison and that Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Sanandaj has set a bail of 25 billion Iranian rials – nearly 50,000 USD – for their release.
Initially, the judge had set the bail at 15 billion rials, but after the activists’ families requested a reduction, he increased it to 25 billion.
The charges against the three activists have not yet been announced.
The IRGC arrested the environmental activists on 20 June while they were returning from the Kusalan mountain area where they had gone to control the wildfires caused by IRGC’s shelling of the area.
The IRGC forces stopped the activists’ vehicle and detained them without a judicial order, announcing that travel to the Kusalan mountain area was prohibited.
After their arrest, the individuals were taken to the IRGC base in the village of Zherizhah in Sarvabad, Kurdistan province, and after several hours of interrogation, they were transferred to the Shahramfar detention centre of the IRGC intelligence service in Sanandaj.
“These three environmental activists were deprived of their right to access a lawyer and meet with their families during their interrogation period at the Sharamfar detention centre.
On 12 June, the IRGC began heavily shelling the Kusalan mountain area in Sarvabad under the pretext of conducting the “Moharram military exercise”, leading to extensive wildfires in the surrounding forests.
Following the shelling of Mount Kusalan, IRGC forces also bombed some forested heights in the villages near Marivan, Kurdistan province, causing extensive wildfires in the forests around the villages of Bilu, Darreh Tefi, Chor and Bardeh Rasheh.
