{"id":15826,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15826"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:53:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:53:36","slug":"conservationist-still-under-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/05\/04\/conservationist-still-under-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservationist still under arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hopes for the release of Morad Tahbaz, imprisoned by the Iranian government in 2018, have been dashed<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Asiatic cheetahs are now only found in remote parts of Iran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Following the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from prison in Iran in March, attention has turned to the third person it was hoped would be freed at the same time: Morad Tahbaz.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

A British-American businessman and philanthropist, Tahbaz was part of a group of nine scientists and conservationists arrested in 2018, accused of spying on military installations. They had been involved in a project using remote cameras to survey Iran\u2019s Asiatic cheetahs, a critically endangered subspecies with a population that may be as low as just 50 individuals.<\/p>\n\n

All deny the claims of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that they\u2019d been passing classified information to the USA, and it\u2019s not clear why they have been detained.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Morad Tahbaz co-founded the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation in 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

According to Eugene Chudnovsky, who is co-chair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists, a human rights group, the IRGC has been locking up environmentalists because they fear they may know, as a result of their work in remote areas, where radioactive and toxic material has been leaking out of installations and into the environment.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThey do not want environmentalists wandering around with their cameras recording clandestine activities,\u201d Chudnovsky said in an email. \u201cTahbaz belongs to a sizeable group of dual-citizen prisoners that are held hostage for future swaps for Iranian officers arrested abroad,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n

Other sources have suggested the release of prisoners is linked to a potential US-Iran nuclear deal that would see the lifting of economic sanctions.<\/p>\n\n

Exactly what this means for the Asiatic cheetah is anybody\u2019s guess. It\u2019s almost certain that no monitoring work has been carried out over the past four years, and this can only have increased the fragility of the population.<\/p>\n\n

James <\/strong>Fair <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photos: CHEETAH: FRANS LANTING\/LANTING.COM; MORAD: MORAD TAHBAZ\/ FACEBOOK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hopes for the release of Morad Tahbaz, imprisoned by the Iranian government in 2018, have been dashed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"14","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"14","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_14-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_14-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-14-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-14-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-06T07:42:16Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"a7063ab0-98a1-4e97-b583-dd8ac1e98f88","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T11:53:42Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ApwY6sJihTpe1g92KwemPiA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02.jpg",2048,1783,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02-300x261.jpg",300,261,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02-768x669.jpg",768,669,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02-1024x892.jpg",800,697,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02-1536x1337.jpg",1536,1337,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/757VH2758OE4T0O95W548850XV02.jpg",2048,1783,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Hopes for the release of Morad Tahbaz, imprisoned by the Iranian government in 2018, have been dashed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15826"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16581,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15826\/revisions\/16581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}