Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

In an Associated Press article published January 28 in the Washington Post, Iranian prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi reportedly announced that a group of post-election detainees, including an unknown number of Baha’is, would go on trial Saturday, January 30.

From the article:

He said the trial will demonstrate the role of “leftists, Bahais and those who were directed by foreign hands” in the postelection turmoil. He did not say how many new defendants would go on trial.

Iranian authorities regularly accuse the U.S., Britain and other foreign enemies of fueling the unrest in a bid to oust the country’s clerical leaders. They have also accused followers of the Bahai faith, which is illegal in Iran because it is seen as heretical.

At least 47 Baha’is are currently in prison throughout Iran, including 10 who were arrested on January 3 in the wake of the Ashura Day protests last December.

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On January 24-45, News X of India broadcast an in-depth documentary series on the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community. The series includes an interview with human rights attorney and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, who is the lead defender of seven Baha’is currently on trial in Tehran.

View the series on YouTube:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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Human Rights Watch again included the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community in it’s annual report, World Report 2010, which evaluates human rights in 90 countries and territories throughout 2009.

Below is an excerpt from the report on Iran, mentioning the situation of the Baha’is:

The government continues to deny members of the Baha’i faith, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, freedom of religion. In May 2008 authorities arrested seven leaders of the national organization of Baha’i based on fabricated security related accusations. The government accused them of espionage without providing evidence and has denied their lawyers request to release them on bail and promptly conduct a free and fair trial. As of November 2009 the seven remain in detention.

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On January 27, the Baha’i World News Service published the following article concerning the “lack of information about the status of 10 Baha’is who were arrested earlier this month in Iran.”

From the article:

In addition to worry about their safety, there are fears that charges against these 10 will be used to create false evidence in court against the seven Baha’i leaders who have been held since 2008 and whose trial is set to resume on 7 February.

“Our concern is that in the absence of any evidence against the seven leaders, the authorities may be attempting to build a case by perhaps forcing these newly arrested Baha’is to ‘confess’ that they were involved in organizing December’s Ashura demonstrations under orders from their ‘leadership’,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“Any such claim would be absurd, given that the seven leaders have been in prison for the last two years,” she said.

Since their arrest on 3 January, statements have been made in Iranian state-sanctioned media that the 10 possessed arms and ammunition in their homes as part of an anti-government plot related to the December demonstrations.

The 10 have virtually disappeared into Iran’s detention system, said Ms. Dugal.

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On January 22, The New York Times published the following article, written by religion columnist Samuel G. Freedman, about the persecution of the Baha’i Faith in Iran from the perspective of a D.C.-area Baha’i whose brother, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, is among seven Baha’i leaders who are currently on trial in Tehran.

From the article…

In 2001, after his own arrest and interrogation, after the ransacking of his office, after the confiscation of his car and his books, Mr. [Rezvan] Tavakkoli used connections to gain a passport to Abu Dhabi. From there, he went on to the United States to reunite with his wife and children and to learn the particular anguish of survivor guilt.

Behrouz had remained behind in Iran and was ultimately named a member of the Yaran, an unofficial leadership body for Iran’s 300,000 Bahais. Security agents arrested and jailed him for four months in 2005. Then, in the spring of 2008, he was arrested and charged along with all seven members of the Yaran.

After several postponements, their trial began on Jan. 12 with the reading of the charges, according to reports that reached the Western news media. The proceedings are expected to resume Feb. 7. A chorus of condemnation from around the world — the European Union, the United States State Department, Amnesty International — has done nothing to derail the trial.

Mr. Tavakkoli heard a week or two ago from his sister about a visit she made to Behrouz in prison. She said that he looked old and weak, like he was 80, this boy who showed movies on the wall.

“I’m hoping for the light of justice to shine on the men in power,” Mr. [Rezvan] Tavakkoli said, “because they say they are people of religion.”

And, if not, then Bahai theology has provided an answer. “It’s the mystery of self-sacrifice,” he said, “for the world to have a better future.”

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Iranian authorities have notified the lawyers of seven imprisoned Bahá’í leaders that the next session of their trial will be held on February 7, 2010, the Bahá’í International Community announced today.

After 20 months in prison, with limited access to their attorneys, the defendants— Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm—had their first court appearance on January 12, at which time their charges were read to them.

According to accounts in Iran’s state-sponsored news media, the charges against the seven prisoners were: espionage, “propaganda activities against the Islamic order,” the establishment of an “illegal administration,” cooperation with Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and “corruption on earth.”

“While we know little about what actually took place inside the court, we can now say for certain that these seven innocent Bahá’ís stood up and firmly rejected all of the charges against them,” said Diane Alá’í of the Bahá’í International Community.

Six of the seven defendants were arrested on May 14, 2008, at their homes in Tehran. Mrs. Mahvash Sabet was arrested on March 5, 2008, while in Mashhad. They have been held in Tehran’s Evin prison ever since, spending their first year there without formal charges or any access to lawyers.

Read more from the Baha’i World News Service

Read news coverage: Washington TV

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On Monday, January 18, 2010, The Washington Post published the following article indicating that Iran was “moving toward sentencing” seven Baha’i leaders who have been accused of espionage and collaboration with Israel, among other unfounded charges.

Iran’s judiciary is deciding on prison sentences for seven leaders of the Bahai community, who are being put on trial behind closed doors in Tehran, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency reported. Bahai is an outlawed faith in the Shiite Muslim republic.

Arrested in 2008, the five men and two women, who acted as an unofficial leadership council for the faith’s Iranian community, are accused of espionage and collaboration with Israel, Iran’s archenemy. Bahai representatives have denied the charges.

“Iran’s own law says that you can’t be in jail without charges for over two months,” said Shastri Purushotma, human rights officer for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States. “Iran has violated their own law by keeping them in jail for so long.”

Purushotma, in Washington, dismissed the idea that the Bahais on trial had acted against the Iranian government and said they were scapegoats. “This is purely a case of religious persecution.”

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The commencement of the trial of seven Baha’is in Iran was highlighted this week by the PBS program Religion & Ethics Newsweekly:

In Iran, a trial there has drawn international condemnation. Seven leaders of the Baha’i community are accused of spying for Israel, charges that have them facing the death penalty. The accused have been imprisoned since 2008. The US State Department has protested the trial and the treatment of the Baha’is. The Baha’i community abroad is calling for prayer. The Baha’i faith was founded in the nineteenth century in what is now Iran, but the religion is banned there, and adherents have long been persecuted.

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The trial of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders, which began January 12,  has drawn widespread attention from the international community. According to a Baha’i World News Service article published today, public statements of concern on behalf of the seven have been issued by the governments of Brazil, Canada, India, the United States, and by the European Union. Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Laureate and the lead attorney defending the seven Baha’is, also commented about yesterday’s trial proceedings in an interview with Washington TV, a web-based news service based in the United States.

Below are excerpts of her statements as reported by the Baha’i World News Service:

“If justice is to be carried out and an impartial judge should investigate the charges leveled against my clients, no other verdict can be reached save that of acquittal,” said Mrs. Ebadi, in comments posted on WashingtonTV.

Mrs. Ebadi, who is one of the lawyers for the seven, said she had carefully read the dossier of charges against them and “found in it no cause or evidence to sustain the criminal charges upheld by the prosecutor.”

…

In the WashingtonTV interview, Mrs. Ebadi, who is currently outside Iran, also offered a glimpse of what happened yesterday inside Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, where the “first session” of the trial was held.

She said only two lawyers of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which she established, were able to be present in the court. And that in spite of a request for an open hearing, the court was closed.

The charges against the seven were reiterated yesterday in news accounts in government-sponsored news media. They were given as: espionage, “propaganda activities against the Islamic order,” the establishment of an illegal administration, cooperation with Israel, the sending of secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and “corruption on earth.”

Diane Ala’i of the Baha’i International Community said the seven have consistently and categorically denied such accusations. “We can be certain that they also did so in front of the judge yesterday,” she said.

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On January 12, 2010,  the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a statement denouncing the trial of seven Baha’i leaders as a “sham” and stating that the trial should be “condemned in the strongest possible terms by the international community.”

We are extremely concerned about the fate of the seven Baha’is, who could face the death penalty for several of the charges leveled against them today in court,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair.   “It appears that the Iranian government has already predetermined the outcome, and is once again using its courts as an instrument of religious persecution in blatant violation of international human rights law.

Related media coverage: Washington TV

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On January 12, 2010, the High Representative on behalf of the European Union issued the following declaration about the trial of seven Baha’i leaders, which commenced today in Iran:

The European Union expresses its serious concern about the start today of the trial against seven Baha’i leaders in Iran, as the charges against them appear to be motivated by their belonging to a minority faith.

The EU recalls that freedom of thought, conscience and religion is a fundamental and undeniable right which shall be guaranteed in every circumstance, in accordance with article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Islamic Republic of Iran has signed and ratified.

The EU calls for a just, fair and open trial respecting all international standards and obligations under the ICCPR. The EU reiterates its request to the Islamic Republic of Iran to allow independent observation of the judicial proceedings.

The EU also expresses its deep concern about the recent detention of another 13 members of the Baha’i community for alleged involvement in anti-government protests. The EU calls on Iran to end the persecution of the Baha’i community and to release the detained individuals.

The Candidate Countries Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

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The following is an update from the Baha’i World News Service regarding the trial of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran, which commenced on January 12, 2010.

The trial of seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders began today in Iran. Initial reports indicate that the trial is marked by numerous violations of legal due process.

“We understand that no observers were allowed in the court,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “We find this completely outrageous, given that these seven have been held purely because of their religious beliefs, in total contradiction to any human rights standards.

“We understand that even the lawyers had to argue their way inside the court – lawyers who in any case had virtually no access to the accused for nearly two years.

“At the same time, the prisoners’ interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence and a film crew were seen going in, raising questions about the nature of the trial,” she said.

Ms. Ala’i also noted that an Iranian Web site linked to state-run television posted a story Monday evening announcing that the trial had already begun and listing the same baseless accusations made in the past against the seven.

“In any event, all of these accounts point to a trial that is highly irregular, very similar to the show trials that have been held in Iran in recent months,” she said.

The seven are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.

All but one of the group were arrested on 14 May 2008 at their homes in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was arrested on 5 March 2008 while in Mashhad. They have been held in Tehran’s Evin prison ever since, spending their first year there without formal charges or any access to lawyers.

“Whatever happens, it is clear that the trial of these seven innocent people represents the trial of an entire religious community, and is an attempt to further intimidate and ostracize all Iranian Baha’is simply because they hold a different religious viewpoint from those in power.”

Related media coverage: Associated Press (via The New York Times),  CNN International, United Press International, The Washington Post, Washington TV, BBC News, The Guardian (UK), The Globe and Mail (Canada), Reuters India

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On January 11, 2010, Voice of America highlighted the latest persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community in an editorial expressing concern about human rights abuses in that country.

Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community representative to the United Nations in Geneva, has voiced grave concern over the plight of 7 Iranian Baha’is who have been in Evin prison for over 20 months on false charges and who are reported to face trial on January 12. Iranian authorities have accused them of espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic.

In addition, Ms. Ala’i says the Iranian government is responsible for an anti-Baha’i media campaign which has culminated in accusations that Baha’is are provoking civil unrest in Iran. Thirteen Baha’is were rounded up in Tehran and taken to a detention center on January 3, she said, where authorities tried to get them to sign a document saying they would not engage in future demonstrations.

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On January 11, 2010,  the U.S. Department of State issued a statement condemning the trial of seven Baha’i leaders in Tehran and indicating that Iran is responsible for the safety of all 48 Baha’is who are currently detained in prisons throughout Iran. Of the seven leaders, the statement asserts:

These persons are entitled to due process. The right to a fair and public hearing is embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Iran’s constitution provides the right to legal representation in criminal cases, as does the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party. In addition, the right to freedom of belief and conscience is enshrined in both the UDHR and ICCPR.

We are deeply concerned about Iran’s ongoing persecution of Baha’is and treatment of other members of religious minorities who continue to be targeted solely on the basis of their beliefs.

We join the international community in urging the Iranian authorities to release all religious minorities who are currently in detention for peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

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On Saturday, January 9, 2010, the Baha’i World News Service published the following article in response to Iran’s allegations, published in recent news reports, that “arms and ammunition were found in the homes of Baha’is who were arrested in Tehran last Sunday.”

The Baha’i International Community today categorically rejected new allegations by the Iranian government that arms and ammunition were found in the homes of Baha’is who were arrested in Tehran last Sunday.

“This is nothing less than a blatant lie,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “Baha’is are by the most basic principles of their faith committed to absolute nonviolence, and any charge that there might have been weapons or ‘live rounds’ in their homes is simply and completely unbelievable.

“Without doubt, these are baseless fabrications devised by the government to further create an atmosphere of prejudice and hatred against the Iranian Baha’i community. For more than a century Baha’is have suffered all manner of persecution in Iran and have not resorted to armed violence, and everyone knows this. Unfortunately, the Iranian government is once again resorting to outright falsehoods to justify its nefarious intentions against the Baha’i community. It should know that these lies will have no credibility whatsoever.

“We are particularly concerned by the fact that these accusations come just days before the scheduled trial of seven Baha’i leaders, who have been locked up for nearly two years on equally unfounded charges,” she said.

“All of these latest accusations are so far-fetched as to be ludicrous if they were not so obviously aimed at putting innocent lives at risk,” she said.

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On Saturday, January 9, 2010, CNN International published the following story concerning the latest wave of persecution of the Baha’is in Iran and its potential impact on the expected trial of seven Baha’i leaders tomorrow, January 12.

A trial for seven Iranian Baha’is that has come to symbolize the persecution of followers of the faith is set to unfold next week with added controversy and global attention.

Recent turmoil and governmental crackdowns on protesters in Iran have raised concern about the fate of the seven Baha’i community leaders who have been held at Tehran’s Evin prison since their arrests in March and May 2008.

And now other Baha’is, arrested during demonstrations last month on the Shiite holy day of Ashura, will also face trial in the coming days, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday.

“These people were not arrested because they were Baha’is,” said Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, prosecutor for Iran’s Public and Revolution Courts. “In searching their homes, a number of weapons and ammunition were discovered.”

He said the Baha’is had “played a role in organizing the riots and sending pictures of the riots abroad. That is why they were arrested.”

But a spokeswoman for the Baha’is said the government’s latest allegations were designed to sow prejudice and hatred against the minority faith in Iran.

“This is nothing less than a blatant lie,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. “Baha’is are by the most basic principles of their faith committed to absolute nonviolence, and any charge that there might have been weapons or ‘live rounds’ in their homes is simply and completely unbelievable.”

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A recent state-sponsored media campaign falsely accusing Baha’i in Iran of inciting the latest wave of protests in that country has raised grave concern about the fate of seven Baha’i leaders who are expected to go on trial next Tuesday, January 12.

“Over the past several days, Iranian state-sponsored media have accused the Baha’i of being responsible for the unrest surrounding the holy day of Ashura,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “This is clearly aimed at rousing public sentiment against the seven Baha’is being held in Evin prison. We are particularly concerned that the government, or ultraconservative elements within it, may use the turmoil in Iran as cover for extreme measures against these wrongly imprisoned individuals.”

This concern deepened on Sunday, January 3, when authorities rounded up 13 Baha’is from their homes in Tehran, including relatives of two of the imprisoned leaders, took them to a detention center, and tried to get them to sign a document saying that they would not engage in any future demonstrations. Ten of the 13 Baha’is remain in prison, making a total of 48 Baha’is in prison across Iran.

“Putting two and two together, the situation facing these Baha’i leaders is extremely ominous. We are deeply concerned for their safety,” Ms. Ala’i said.

The seven — Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm — were arrested in the spring of 2008 and have since been held in Evin prison without formal charges. Trial dates were previously announced for July, August, and October of 2009, but were postponed each time. In December, lawyers were notified that January 12, 2010, had been set as the new trial date.

Official Iranian news accounts have said the seven are to be accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic republic.” The Baha’i International Community categorically denies all the charges and is concerned that the latest media campaign may result in more baseless charges being brought against the seven Baha’i leaders.

“We ask that the international community indicate clearly to Iran that it will be watching and that it expects any trial to be public and held in accordance with internationally recognized principles of due process,” Ms. Ala’i said.

Read more from the Baha’i World News Service

Media coverage: CNN International, Radio Free Europe and Washington TV

Blog coverage: National Review Online

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