Profession:
Businessman and conservationist
Nationality:
British citizenship
Arrested for:
The Iranian judiciary sentenced Tahbaz to 10 years in prison for “contacts with the US enemy government
The 67-year-old businessman and wildlife conservationist, who also holds American and British citizenship, was arrested during a crackdown on environmental activists in January 2018. His Canadian-Iranian colleague, Kavous Seyed-Emami, died in custody a few weeks later in unexplained circumstances.
The authorities accused Tahbaz and seven other conservationists of collecting classified information about Iran’s strategic areas under the pretext of carrying out environmental and scientific projects.
The conservationists – members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation – had been using cameras to track endangered species including the Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopard, according to Amnesty International.
UN human rights experts said it was “hard to fathom how working to preserve the Iranian flora and fauna can possibly be linked to conducting espionage against Iranian interests”, while a government committee concluded that there was no evidence to suggest they were spies.
But in October 2018, Tahbaz and three of his fellow conservationists were charged with “corruption on earth”, which carries the death penalty. The charge was later changed to “co-operating with the hostile state of the US”. Three others were charged with espionage, and a fourth was accused of acting against national security.
All eight denied the charges and Amnesty International said there was evidence that they had been subjected to torture in order to extract forced “confessions”.
In November 2019, they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from four to 10 years and ordered to return allegedly “illicit income”.
Human Rights Watch denounced what it said was an unfair trial, during which the defendants were apparently unable to see the full dossier of evidence against them.
The Court of Appeals reportedly upheld Tahbaz’s convictions in February 2020.
UN human rights experts warned in January 2021 that Tahbaz’s health had continuously deteriorated during his imprisonment and that he had been denied access to proper treatment.
In March 2022, then-UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Tahbaz had been released from Evin prison on furlough.
The announcement came on the same day that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow British national Anoosheh Ashoori were released by Iran and allowed to return to the UK.
However, Tahbaz was returned to Evin just two days later. The UK Foreign Office said the Iranians had told them it was so that he could be fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
He was not allowed to resume his furlough and subsequently went on hunger strike for nine days to protest against his continued detention.
His daughter Roxanne said in April 2022 that he had “made it very clear that he feels abandoned” by the UK government.
The Foreign Office said Iran “committed to releasing Morad from prison on an indefinite furlough”, but had “failed to honour that commitment”.
In August 2023, Tahbaz was taken out of Evin and moved to house arrest along with three other Americans – including Siamak Namazi and Emad Shargi – after the US and Iran agreed a prisoner exchange.
In return for allowing them and a fifth American already under home confinement to leave, the US will reportedly release five Iranians jailed there and allow Iran to access $6bn (£4.7bn) of assets frozen in South Korea.