Iran's Ministry of Intelligence rearrested environmentalists Houman Jokar and Sepideh Kashani at their home on July 1, according to reports.
The couple's whereabouts remain unknown, and authorities have not provided any reason for their detention.
Former Evin prison detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe condemned the operation, which also led to the arrest of Kashani's sister Sima and the seizure of all electronic devices.
The news was first reported by Hojjat Kermani, Zaghari-Ratcliffe's former defense lawyer.
Kashani and Jokar previously worked for the now-defunct Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, focusing on protecting the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah.
They were jailed in 2018 on espionage charges related to wildlife camera traps—a conviction widely condemned as baseless by international scientists and Iran's own environment ministry.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe described Kashani as a non-political person who endured two years in solitary confinement.
She noted that the couple stayed in Iran for family reasons but faced severe financial restrictions after their release.
“Jokar had dedicated his entire life to looking after the critically endangered Asiatic cheetahs in Iran.
He has an amazing knowledge of their life, their wellbeing and their habitats,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said.
She added that while Jokar was in prison, an officially approved wildlife channel aired his programs.
According to Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the couple has only been permitted to make two phone calls since their arrest.
She expressed deep personal fear about the possibility of being sent back to an Iranian cell.
“Sepideh is a wonderful person.
After completing her sentence, she never left Iran, but she was not allowed to return to her work.
They were eating into their savings and could not afford to go to the seaside for her holidays,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe praised Kashani's resilience during their shared time in the ward, recalling how Kashani supported less fortunate inmates despite her own psychological trauma.
“All we know of them is that they have been allowed to make two phone calls, and we do not know if the arrests are related to the previous case.
I can only hope the two sisters are together,” she said.
The arrests coincide with a broader government crackdown on civil society.
Amnesty International reports that more than 6,000 individuals have been detained since the launch of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Former cellmate Siamak Namazi also criticized the actions of the Iranian government on social media, pointing out the hypocrisy of the state's rhetoric regarding national reconciliation.
He described the original 2018 convictions as a severe miscarriage of justice and emphasized that one of the new detainees is a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis.
Iranian authorities have not yet published formal charges against Jokar, Kashani, or Sima. Rights organizations state that Iran continues to conduct near-daily prisoner executions in secrecy.
