Jan27
BWNS: Detention of ten Baha’is leads to fears for other prisoners
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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