Iranian authorities have announced that the next trial session of the Baha’i leaders in Iran will be held 7 February. The charges against the seven have been denounced by governments and human rights organizations around the world. They represent an effort to put on trial an entire religious community simply because they hold different religious beliefs than those in power.
Canada’s Baha’is are hoping that international pressure will continue to make it clear that the Iranian government itself will be held accountable for its unjust actions. Canada’s media and government have helped contribute to this international outcry.
The Canadian Government has been a leading force in the work at the United Nations, under both the Conservative government and the previous Liberal government, to see that a strong resolution by the world’s most representative body has been passed each of the past six years in the General Assembly, with resolutions in other U.N. human rights bodies going back more than 25 years. The resolutions have condemned Iran for a wide range of human rights violations with strong language about the treatment of Iran’s largest religious minority, the Baha’is.
Last March, 2009, the Canadian Parliament voted unanimously to condemn the persecution of the Baha’is and to demand the release of the unjustly imprisoned leaders. The Canadian Foreign Minister has also spoken out denouncing the continued imprisonment of the Baha’is, the last statement coming on 8 January.
Canada’s media has also given attention to the issue with a commentary by leading human rights expert Professor Howard Adelman on 11 January in the “Globe and Mail”, an article by one of the country’s most senior foreign affairs journalists, Brian Stewart, on CBC on-line on 13 January and an interview on CBC’s “As It Happens” program with Nika Khanjani, niece of one of the prisoners in Iran on 14 January, and several newspaper articles across the country.
The Baha’i International Community has issued a release today as follows:
Date set for next court session for seven Baha’i leaders in Iran
GENEVA – Iranian authorities have notified the lawyers of seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders that the next session of their trial will be held on 7 February, the Baha’i International Community learned today.
At their first court appearance, held 12 January in Tehran, the charges were read to the seven, who categorically denied the accusations.
“While we know little about what actually took place inside the court, we can now say for certain that these seven innocent Baha’is stood up and firmly rejected all of the charges against them,” said Diane Ala’i of the Baha’i International Community.
“We can also say that, based on the international outcry that accompanied the first session of their trial, the world is watching this proceeding closely and that the Iranian government will be held accountable for any injustices,” she said.
The charges against the seven, according to accounts in government-sponsored news media, 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.”
The seven defendants 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 groups 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.
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