- Prison
- Evin
- Status
- Imprisoned
Sam Rajabi, an environmentalist, was arrested along with eight other environmentalists in a coordinated operation by the IRGC Intelligence Organization in the final months of 2017 on charges related to “espionage.”
Sam Rajabi was raised in Göttingen, Germany, and graduated in ecology from Victoria University in New Zealand. His father, Parviz Rajabi, was a prominent Iranian historian and author.
Sam had collaborated with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation since its very first days; although he had not been on its staff for the previous four years, he kept his connection with it and took part in its public events. He is a field biologist and ecotourism specialist and has translated many books. After several years working on the Iran–Japan cooperation project to improve management of the Persian Gulf coastal areas for the Department of Environment, in December 2017 he had begun a new job as a cultural affairs associate at the Austrian Cultural Association in Tehran.
After five court sessions at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison. On 18 February 2020, the judiciary spokesman announced the confirmation and finalization of the environmentalists’ sentences.
After 22 months in the IRGC’s solitary cells, Sam Rajabi was transferred to the general ward of Evin prison.
On 22 April he was taken to a hospital outside the prison for surgery; during pre-operative tests, doctors confirmed he had contracted COVID-19. He was immediately returned to Evin and transferred to the prison clinic, spending time in quarantine. He was later taken to hospital for surgery, and after three weeks of hospitalization and the operation was returned to prison — at a time when Iran’s prisons were facing the COVID crisis and he should at least have been granted medical leave.
