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Iran Jails Climate Activists for Cooperation With U.S.

(Bloomberg) -- Iran sentenced eight environmentalists to prison terms of between four and 10 years for spying for and collaborating with the U.S., the spokesman for the country’s judiciary said on Tuesday.

The sentences are final, Gholam Hossein Esmaili told reporters at a televised news conference. The eight people were arrested in January and February 2018 and several of them are dual citizens of the U.S. and the U.K.

Esmaili also said that Iran and Germany had completed a prisoner exchange, semi-official Fars news reported.

A German citizen who was serving a three-year sentence in Iran for “prohibited photography” was released in return for Germany freeing an Iranian detained on charges related to sanctions evasion, Fars quoted Esmaili as saying, without giving further details.

(Adds statement on Iran-Germany prisoner exchange.)

--With assistance from Golnar Motevalli.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arsalan Shahla in Tehran at ashahla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Abbas Al Lawati, Mark Williams

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