TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian lawmakers confirmed that an Iranian-Canadian university professor killed himself while he was in custody, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported Monday.

The report quoted the head of parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, as saying some members of parliament, including moderate deputy parliament speaker Ali Motahari, said after watching CCTV footage from his time in custody in Tehran that Kavous Seyed-Emami took his life.

Boroujerdi said Seyed-Emami's "family also accepted this, so they did not ask for an autopsy."

"The video showed that Seyed-Emami takes his shirt off and prepares for suicide," Boroujerdi said.

Boroujerdi added that considering that he was a university professor, he was kept in a proper cell. "Unfortunately, Kavos Seyed-Emami, for whatever reason, could not bear the prison conditions," he said.

The semi-official Fars news agency quoted spokesman of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, as saying, "The issue is quite clear because prepares his shirt as a rope to commit suicide."

Hosseini added that Seyed-Emami tried to make it appear to guards that he was asleep.

On Saturday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said authorities had arrested several unidentified people on suspicion of spying under the cover of implementation of scientific and environmental projects.

The chief justice of Tehran province, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, described the case as being in its early stages in a Sunday report by ILNA.

"Some people who collected and transferred information to strangers were identified and some were arrested, and some might be arrested in the future," he said.

Omar Alghabra, Canada's parliamentary secretary for consular affairs, tweeted that the Canadian government was concerned about the circumstances of the death.

"Our thoughts are with his family. Canada has asked Iranian authorities for answers," Alghabra tweeted.

 

‎کاووس سید امامی پس از دریافت کارشناسی ارشد در امور بین‌الملل از دانشگاه اوهايو به ایران باز می‌گردد. در سال ۱۳۵۸ در دانشگاه جندی‌شاپور اهواز جامعه‌شناسی تدریس می‌کند. در بحبوحه اغتشاشات اوایل انقلاب، با جمعی از استادان و برای حفاظت از دانشجویان گروهی را تشکیل می‌دهد. با همسرش، مریم ممبینی، آشنا می‌شود و در خردادماه ۱۳۵۹ ازدواج می‌کند. فرزند نخستین‌اش، رامین، در شکم مادر است که ارتش عراق در شهریور ۱۳۵۹ به خاک ایران و شهر اهواز حمله‌ می‌کند. کاووس سیدامامی داوطلب می‌شود و به جبهه آبادان می‌رود. همسر و فرزندش به بوشهر می‌روند. در اسفندماه روی پل خرمشهر ترکش می‌خورد و برای مداوا به تهران ارسال می‌شود. همسرش در تهران به او ملحق می‌شود. بلافاصله پس از مداوا به دانشگاه باز می‌گردد. رامین در بوشهر در فروردین‌ماه ۱۳۶۰ زاده می‌شود ‎کاووس_سیدامامی# ‎کاووس_سید_امامی# Having received his BA in poli-sci and MA in international studies from Ohio University, Kavous Seyed Emami moved back to Iran and started teaching political science at Jondi-Shapour University in the city of Ahvaz in 1979, on the eve of the Islamic Revolution. In the same year, he met his future wife, Maryam Mombeini and they married shortly after. When Maryam was pregnant with their first son, Ramin, the Iraqi army invaded Iran, entering the province of Khuzestan, and capturing the city of Abadan, a town close to Ahvaz, Kavous Seyed Emami immediately joined the war effort as a volunteer and was sent to Abadan. Maryam moved to the port city of Bushehr to stay with her family. Five months later, Kavous was hit by artillery shell on the Khoramshahr Bridge and had to be taken to Tehran for medical treatment. Not nearly convalesced, he moved back to his university post to continue teaching in the war-torn region. Ramin is born in April 1981. #كاووس_سيدامامى

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