Iran Bahais face espionage trial
It is not clear how long the trial of the seven Bahais will lastSeven members of the Bahai faith in Iran are to go on trial on Tuesday on charges of spying for Israel and of “insulting sanctities”.
Six of the Bahais were arrested in May, 2008. The other one was arrested two months earlier. They were the leaders of the Bahais in Iran.
The Bahai faith is banned by the Islamic revolutionary leadership of Iran which considers it heretical.
Bahais claim some 300,000 members in Iran, where the faith originated.
Midnight raids
“The trial of the seven Bahais accused of spying for the Zionist regime of Israel and insulting sanctities will be held on Tuesday,” Hassan Haddad of the Tehran’s prosecutor office said, the official Iranian news agency reports.
Last year relatives of the six Bahai leaders arrested in May said they had been taken to Evin Prison in Tehran after intelligence ministry officers raided their homes in the middle of the night.
Hundreds of Bahai followers have been jailed and executed since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979, the Bahai International Community says.
However, the government denies it has detained or executed people because of their faith.
The Bahais consider the man who founded their faith in the 19th Century, Bahaullah, to be a prophet.
Call for justice!
It looks like the trial of the seven, for which several dates have previously been announced and gone by without action, will take place on Tuesday.
Baha’is the world over will be praying for the safe deliverance of these souls. The Baha’i institutions will continue to act robustly and many friends of the Baha’is will also add their voices to the calls to the Iranian government to ensure that the Baha’is – who have committed no crime – are treated with justice according to international norms and according to the Iranian constitution.
[tags]Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, persecution, human rights, justice[/trial]
Posted via web from Barney’s posterous
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It has again been postponed, per Reuters. At the request of the defense lawyers. Who of course have no access to the prisoners, one of whom has even been imprisoned himself. At this rate the Yaran members may starve to death, since reports indicate that their already scanty, bad food has been much reduced. They are said to be in wretched physical condition.
Yes, the trial has been postponed at the request of the lawyers. It seems that it will now take place on 18th October. Please see today’s post about this.
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