Daily Times

The family of an environmentalist who died in an Iranian prison have called for a post-mortem, their lawyer said Tuesday, rejecting claims by officials that they had accepted the explanation of suicide.

“The family has put in a request for a post-mortem,” Arash Keikhosravi, lawyer for the family of Iranian-Canadian Kavous Seyed Emami, told the reformist Shargh newspaper.

He said the coroner’s office had also put in a routine request for a post-mortem.

Emami’s family were informed on Friday that the renowned professor and founder of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation had died in custody just over two weeks after being arrested on espionage charges.

On Monday, Allaedin Borujerdi, head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said the family had watched a film from his cell and accepted the official explanation that the 63-year-old had committed suicide.

“In the film you see that Kavous Seyed Emami is taking off his shirt and is getting prepared for suicide,” Borujerdi told the parliament news agency.

“His family too have accepted this incident and so have not asked for an autopsy,” he added.

Published in Daily Times, February  14^th 2018.