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Eight wildlife conservationists arrested a year ago in Iran — including McGill University graduate Niloufar Bayani — were in court Wednesday for the start of their closed-door trial, Iran’s state media said Wednesday.

But a lawyer for one of the accused said he was barred from the courtroom, and human-rights activists say some of the conservationists have made false confessions after being subjected to “psychological torture.”

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The eight, held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, are affiliated with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, an Iranian environmental organization studying the endangered Asiatic cheetah. They were arrested in early 2018, along with Iranian-Canadian foundation director Kavous Seyed-Emami; he died three weeks later under suspicious circumstances.

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards have suggested the cheetah research was a pretext for spying for the United States and Israel. But critics say the arrests may be part of an effort to dissuade non-governmental organizations.