The four – Niloufar Bayani, Sepideh Kashani, Taher Ghadirian, and Houman Jowkar – were part of a group from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), an IUCN Member organisation, detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in January 2018, together with other conservationists. Additionally, Ghadirian and Jowkar are members of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission’s Cat Specialist Group, and Ghadirian is also a member of the SSC’s Bear Specialist Group. Before their arrest, they were...