Mar06
Baha’i International Community sends letter to Iran’s Prosecutor General
Stating that “what is at stake is the very cause of the freedom of conscience for all the peoples of your nation” the Baha’i International Community addressed the Prosecutor General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in an open letter dated March 4, 2009.
The letter was a response to his February 15, 2009 statement that the ad hoc groups that administer to the needs of the several hundred thousand Baha’is in Iran are participating in “illegal and unauthorized organizational activities.”
The Baha’i International Community stated that the Iranian Baha’is are willing to close down their national and local ad hoc groups attending to the social and spiritual needs of the Baha’i community “to demonstrate yet again the goodwill that the Baha’is have consistently shown to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the past thirty years.”
In 1983, the Attorney-General of Iran declared all elected Baha’i National and Local Spiritual Assemblies illegal. Since then, ad hoc groups have administered to the most basic needs of the community. They were formed with the full knowledge of the Iranian government. The national ad hoc group leadership has been in prison since March and May 2008 and on February 11, 2009, the Deputy Prosecutor General announced they would soon go on trial.
In the March 4, 2009 letter, the Baha’i International Community acknowledged the support Baha’is are receiving from Iranians “who are themselves suffering similar oppression as students and academics, as journalists and social activists, as artists and poets, as progressive thinkers and proponents of women’s rights, and even as ordinary citizens.”
The Baha’i International Community called on the Prosecutor-General, “for the sanctity of Islam and the honor of Iran”, to ensure a fair judgment by the judiciary in the upcoming trial of the seven Baha’i leaders charged with “spying for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”
Click here to read the full letter.
Click here for a Farsi translation.
The Baha’i World News Service posted an article regarding the letter.
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