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https://iranhumanrights.org/2020/02/conservationist-niloufar-bayani-iran-torture-and-sexual-threats-detailed-in-letters-by-jailed-former-un-environment-consultant/  February 20, 2020   “Torture” and “Sexual Threats” Detailed in Letters by Jailed Former UN Environment Consultant                                     Conservation  Scientist Niloufar Bayani: “Every time I… sought help from the  authorities, the pressures, threats, and acts of torture increased.” Appeals Court Upheld Prison Sentences Against Conservationists on Baseless Charges and Coerced “Confessions” February 20, 2020 – A female former UN Environment consultant’s complaints   of physical and psychological torture at the hands of her male   interrogators were ignored by Iranian judicial officials, and forced   “confessions” obtained as a result of torture were used to imprison her   and seven fellow wildlife conservationists, according to her newly published letters from Tehran’s Evin Prison.  In one of conservation scientist Niloufar Bayani’s letters to  then-Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani, dated January 24, 2019, and excerpted online   by BBC Persian on February 18, 2020, Bayani described being forced to   endure “interrogations lasting 9-12 hours day and night” while held for   eight months in “solitary confinement”:  “I was interrogated blindfolded while  standing, spinning or  sit-and-standing… threatened with the arrest and  torture of my  70-year-old mother and father… threatened with physical  torture by  being shown images and descriptions of torture devices…heard  hours of  detailed descriptions about the suffering and pain caused by  torture.” “For the past two years we’ve been documenting egregious   rights abuses in the cases of Bayani and her imprisoned colleagues   while sadistic intelligence agents and judicial officials have been   manufacturing a case against them,” said the communications director of   the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) Jasmin Ramsey.  “Instead of halting the horrendous mistreatment of these peaceful   wildlife conservationists, Iran’s then-Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani   looked on while they were sentenced to prison without due process,”   Ramsey added. “Newly appointed Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi should   release them immediately and allow an independent investigation into   Bayani’s complaints.” Bayani also described being repeatedly sexually harassed. “I   was increasingly terrified that if I didn’t write whatever [my   interrogator] wanted, he would violently sexually assault me,” wrote   Bayani, 32, in one of the excerpted letters that was translated into   English by CHRI. “Because of his  inexplicable sudden appearances and disgusting  behavior in various  places like dark passages and in the detention yard,  I didn’t feel safe  anywhere. Intolerable anxiety never ceased,” she  said.  “Every time I… sought help from the authorities, the pressures,   threats and acts of torture increased,” added Bayani, who worked as a   consultant for the UN Environment Program between 2012-17. In her letter to the judiciary chief, Bayani—who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence—had   requested that the court release audio and video recordings of her   interrogations as well as her medical files to prove her allegations. On February 19, the lawyer of Bayani’s colleague Sepideh Kashani told   the Persian-language Ensaf News that Kashani had presented the court   with an “affidavit” and “written statements” detailing “similar”   experiences that “totally undermined the foundations of the   investigations against her.”  Bayani, an Iranian citizen, received her master’s degree in   conservation biology from Columbia University in 2012 before working for   the UNEP in Geneva. In 2017, she returned to Iran to work for the   Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), a non-profit organization   that was operating in Tehran with the permission of the Iranian   government. The Iranian judiciary’s  imprisonment of Bayani and eight of her PHWF  colleagues (former PWHF  Managing Director Kavous Seyed-Emami died in January 2018 while held for interrogations in Evin Prison) has been internationally condemned by environmental and human rights-focused organizations including the UN and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall among 370 distinguished conservationists and academics. On February 19, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen tweeted that she was “disheartened and disappointed” by the appeals court’s verdict and called for “clemency.” The eight conservationists have been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since January 2018 when they were first arrested   by agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence   organization. The IRGC continued building a case against them on   fabricated “espionage” charges after three major state agencies including the Intelligence Ministry and Supreme National Security Council said the charges were baseless.  A source with detailed knowledge of  the conservationists’ cases told  CHRI that the defendants and their  lawyers have yet to be officially  notified of the Appeals Court’s verdict which was announced by Judiciary Spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esmaili at a press conference in Tehran on February 18, 2020. Excerpts from BBC Persian Article on Bayani’s Letters The following paragraphs from the BBC Persian article that excerpted Bayani’s letters were translated into English by CHRI: In   her description written in early February 2020, the conservationist   said that the agents forced her to “mimic sounds of wild animals” and   threatened to inject her with “crippling ampoules and air ampoules.”   Bayani said interrogators showed her a photo of [PWHF colleague and   Iranian Canadian citizen] Kavous Seyed Emami’s   corpse and warned: “That’s going to be your fate and the fate of all  of  your colleagues and family members unless you write whatever we  want.” [Note by CHRI: Former PWHF Managing Director Kavous Seyed-Emami died while held for interrogations in Tehran’s Evin Prison less than two weeks after he was arrested by IRGC agents.]  Bayani also wrote a letter to Ayatollah  Khamenei on February 11, 2019,  describing how she was treated by IRGC  interrogators. She said seven  armed men took her to a villa in Lavasan, north Tehran, and forced her to “watch them engage in immoral and un-Islamic behavior in a private swimming pool.”  In another letter to the head of IRGC’s  Ward 2-A in Evin Prison, on  January 16, 2019, Bayani wrote that “during  long interrogations” agents  “repeatedly made the most filthy sexual  insults… in detailed,  disgusting, imaginary situations and wanted to  [force me] me to  complete their sexual fantasies.” Stressing it was  pointless to  complain to the authorities, she added: “Shockingly, every  time I  exposed this behavior and sought help from the authorities, the   pressures, threats and acts of torture increased and they repeatedly   told me… not to do anything to irritate the regime.”  Also, in her never-published final  defense presented to the court in  August 2019, Bayani described her  constant fear that agents may carry  out their sexual threats: “Video  recordings are a witness to how I was  treated by the main interrogator…  ‘Hamid Rezaie,’ whose name still  makes me shudder. He was so shameful  that whenever interrogations  dragged on into the darkness [of the  night], I would shake all over in  fear of being seriously assaulted.”  She continued: “I was increasingly  terrified that if I didn’t write  whatever he wanted, he would violently  sexually assault me. Because of  his inexplicable sudden appearances  and disgusting behavior in various  places like dark passages and in the  detention yard, I didn’t feel safe  anywhere. Intolerable anxiety never  ceased.” In another letter on  January 24, 2019, to  Sadegh Larijani, Iran’s Judiciary Chief at the  time, Bayani wrote that  IRGC intelligence agents had bluntly told her  that “they would punch the  judge’s mouth if he read a verdict in court  other than what the IRGC  had determined in advance.” In her letter  written earlier this month,  Bayani described tortures suffered during  “22 months of illegal  temporary detention” in the IRGC’s Ward 2-A. “All  the confessions about  espionage or engaging in other criminal acts  were dictated and induced  under the most severe mental and  psychological torture as well as  physical and sexual threats during at  least 1,200 hours of  interrogation,” she wrote. To prove her  assertions, she requested the  judiciary release audio and video  recording of the interrogations along  with medical files concerning her  condition in detention. The  conservationist added that “not even a  single reason or legal document  was presented” by the prosecution to  back up the charges made against  her and she was convicted only on the  basis of forced confessions and  military reports “that, according to  the judge presiding over Branch 15  of the Revolutionary Court in  Tehran, were so secret that neither the  accused, nor the lawyer or even  the judge himself, had permission to  view.”  Bayani added that she was “threatened  with execution on a daily basis”  and “endured eight months of total  isolation in solitary confinement  with long interrogations lasting 9-12  hours day and night.” She was  “interrogated blindfolded while standing,  spinning or  sit-and-standing,” “threatened with the arrest and torture  of my  70-year-old mother and father,” “threatened to be imprisoned in a   one-meter cell,” “threatened with physical torture by being shown images   and descriptions of torture devices,” “heard hours of detailed   descriptions about the suffering and pain caused by torture as well as   feelings at the moment execution.”  In her letter in early February 2020, the  conservationist also wrote  that interrogators “lifted her sleeve and  threatened to inject  crippling ampoules and air ampoules.” During weeks  of interrogation one  of the agents “kicked my chair so many times… that I  suffered severe  back pains,” Bayani said and another interrogator  pretending to be a  cleric “asked me to decide if I wanted to be flogged  seventy times in  the course of two days or 50 times in one day.” In her  January 16,  2019, letter to the head of Ward 2-A, Bayani had mentioned  that the  so-called cleric had claimed to have been granted authority by  IRGC  intelligence organization chief Hossein Taleb to “conduct torture  by  ordering me to be flogged.” In her  February 11, 2019, letter to  Khamenei, Bayani complained about the  “turbaned person” and wrote that  he had once told her that he would be  conducting part of her trial in  the IRGC’s Ward 2-A “and when I  expressed surprise, he got angry and  threw a chair at me and injured my  knee.” “What completed my mental  breakdown was when I was suddenly  shown a photo of Dr. Seyed-Emami’s  corpse in the cold room as his  family stood by. [Agents] told me ‘That’s  going to be your fate and the  fate of all of your colleagues and family  members unless you write  whatever we want.’” She added:  “While I completely lost the  strength to resist their pressures, agents  dictated things that were  later leveraged against me. They said ‘you  wrote your death sentence  with your own hand. You can’t get off this  train anymore.’” According to  Bayani, the interrogators said ‘the only  way to save yourself and your  colleagues is to write down everything we  want,’ in other words an  unbelievable fictional scenario about  espionage under the guise of  protecting the environment.”  