The commander of the country’s Environmental Protection Agency announced that the death penalty sentence for an environmental guard from Hamedan was canceled. He said, “The environmental guard Saeed Momivand’s case was reviewed by the Supreme Court, and the retaliation sentence has been canceled. The case has been referred to the prosecution office again.”
The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted the Environmental Protection Agency, Colonel Jamshid Mohabatkhani on Wednesday January 9th, 2019: “According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s objection to the ruling for Saeed Momivand’s, the case was again investigated at Branch 47 of the Supreme Court and the retaliation sentence (death penalty) was canceled.”
“This case is being investigated again in the branch,” he said.
Jamshid Mohabatkhani, the commander of the country’s environmental protection unit, also said that he had been in the protected areas of Hamedan province, and told reporters: “About two years ago and in 2016, a number of offenders entered the four ecological areas of the country and tried to hunt illegally. In this case, before the vehicle was seized and after the shooting, one of the passenger lost his life. Another passenger left the car and tried to escape, but our guard ran after him. He was shooting on the run and unfortunately shot the victim.”
Referring to the statements made by environmental guard, he added: “According to him, the shooting was not intentional. After ordering the offender to stop, he raised his gun for aerial shooting, but given the ruggedness of the path and while loading his gun, the bullet was released. The environmental guard took the offenders to the hospital and the he died 10-15 days later.”