Environmental activists Niloufar Bayani and Hooman Jokar were granted a pardon and released from Evin Prison on April 8, 2024, marking the end of more than six years of incarceration.

In January 2018, along with several other environmental activists, Bayani and Jokar were detained and held in Evin Prison. Subsequently, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced them to lengthy imprisonments. The sentences were as follows:

• Niloufar Bayani and Morad Tahbaz received 10 years for “collaboration with the hostile U.S. government.”
• Taher Ghadirian and Hooman Jokar received eight years for the same charge.
• Sam Rajabi and Sepideh Kashani received six years for the same charge.
• Amir-Hossein Khaleghi was sentenced to six years for “espionage.”
• Abdolreza Koohpayeh received four years for “assembly and collusion against national security.”

On February 18, 2020, Gholamhossein Esmaeili, the then spokesperson of Iran’s Judiciary, reported the finalized verdicts against these eight environmental activists at the Appellate Court.

HRANA had reported that during interrogation, several of these prisoners, including a female, were subjected to mistreatment and sexual assault to extract confessions.