Canada calls on Iran to explain the death of an Iranian-Canadian

AFP
Kavous Seyed Emami.

AFP

Monday, 12 February, 2018 18:04

UPDATE
Monday, 12 February, 2018 18:04

Look at this article

The canadian government on Monday urged Iran to provide explanations for the deaths in a prison in iran an academic and environmentalist iranian-canadian, less than a month after his arrest.

• READ ALSO: Iran: death in prison of an academic and environmentalist iranian-canadian

“Canada is concerned by the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Seyed-Emami. Our thoughts are with his family,” responded on Twitter with the secretary of State for foreign Affairs, Omar Alghabra.

“Canada has asked the iranian authorities to provide answers”, he stressed.

Kavous Seyed Emami, 63 years old, director of the Foundation for wildlife Persian that works to protect endangered species in Iran, had been arrested with seven of his colleagues on the 24th January. His death was announced by his family and on the social networks on Saturday.

His son Ramin Seyed Emami, a musician known, said on Sunday that the police had informed his mother of his “suicide” on Friday. “I do not believe in this version”, he responded.

Amnesty International, for its part, demanded on Monday an “independent autopsy” in the face of the will of Tehran to “hide any evidence of torture and possible murder.”

Mr. Seyed Emami “was held in the Evin prison where the prisoners are constantly monitored and deprived of their personal property. It would have been almost impossible for him to commit suicide”, argued in a statement that the Amnesty International’s deputy director, Magdalena Mughrabi.

Canada and Iran have closed their respective embassies in Tehran and Ottawa in 2012, following the rupture of diplomatic relations established at that time by the canadian government.