Iran is once again establishing environmental activists

dubai - Iranian security officials have arrested three more environmentalists on suspicion of espionage, said Sunday court officials. The arrests come several weeks after a first wave of arrests and the death of a detained Iranian-Canadian environmentalist.

After the previous arrests, Iranian officials said that the activists collected sensitive information under the guise of scientific and ecological activities.

The latest arrests took place after the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian environmental activist and professor of sociology, who was arrested on January 24 and died in prison two weeks later. The judicial authorities said that Seyed-Emami (63) had committed suicide.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a non-profit organization from New York, said that at least nine other members of staff and executives of the Seyed-Emami organization were arrested on the same day.