Four Iranian environmental activists, who have been detained since 2017, have been pardoned as part of a mass amnesty approved by Iran's leadership to commemorate the observance of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
The activists -- Niloufar Bayani, Sepideh Kashani, Houman Jokar, and Taher Ghadirian -- were arrested in 2016 as part of a group involved with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation.
According to their lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, the four were told on April 7 that they were being pardoned as part of an anmesty involving more than 2,100 convicts and are expected to be released shortly.
Environmental activists in Iran have been under pressure for several years as their advocacy often highlights issues that have been exacerbated by official corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement.
The pardon also comes as a surprise in the development of a case that has drawn international attention over the years.
The activists, according to the judiciary, were involved in espionage and "collaboration with hostile governments."
The charges were widely criticized and challenged to the point where even Mahmoud Sadeghi, a former member of the Iranian parliament, noted in 2019 that the Ministry of Intelligence had found no evidence of espionage among the activists.
The activists were tried and sentenced in Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Court, with sentences ranging from four to 10 years in prison on various charges. Reports have emerged of severe mistreatment and psychological torture faced by the detainees, including threats and the use of coercive tactics.
During their imprisonment, Kashani and Bayani said in letters that they had been subjected to mental and emotional torture and threatened with death.
The case also involves Morad Tahbaz, a London-born activist with Iranian, British, and American citizenship, who was released last year in a prisoner exchange, and Kavous Seyed-Emami, a Canadian-Iranian environmentalist who died under suspicious circumstances in prison shortly after his arrest.