Five Years Too Many Update: Faith leaders urge William Hague to call for release of imprisoned Bahá’ís in Iran Posted on Wednesday

An update on the UK Bahá’í News website was posted earlier this week. See link for full article.

LONDON, 14 May — Fifty leaders of faith communities in the United Kingdom have signed an open letter, addressed to the Rt Hon William Hague MP, the Foreign Secretary, calling on him to renew the UK Government’s support for the seven imprisoned leaders of the long-suffering Bahá’í community in Iran, the country’s largest religious minority. May 14th marks the day that these seven innocent Bahá’í leaders have been behind bars for five years, imprisoned solely because of their religious beliefs. The letter was received on the Foreign Secretary’s behalf, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, by Alistair Burt MP, Minister for the Middle East and North Africa.

“I am happy to accept this open letter calling for the release of seven Bahá’í leaders currently in prison in Iran,” he said. “It is a fine example of interfaith co-operation from across the many faith groups in the UK.” Mr Burt renewed the UK government’s call for the immediate release of the seven Bahá’í leaders – and he condemned Iran’s wider human rights record. “The continued persecution of the Baha’i is but one example of the intolerance that many religious minorities face in Iran. I urge Iran to release the seven Baha’i leaders and to take immediate steps to stop the systematic persecution of the Baha’i community. Iran should stop the repression of any group on the grounds of their religion or belief, should respect the human rights of all its citizens, and engage seriously with the international community on improving its human rights record,” he said.

The faith leaders, representing the Bahá’í, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities; and including Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi, Barry Morgan, the Archbishop of Wales; and Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, said: “Iran has abandoned every legal, moral, spiritual and humanitarian standard, routinely violating the human rights of its citizens. The government’s shocking treatment of its religious minorities is of particular concern to us as people of faith.”

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Five Years Too Many Update: UN experts urge Iranian authorities to free jailed Baha’i community leaders

The following  piece was posted on the UN News Centre website on 13th May: for the full article see link.

13 May 2013 – A group of independent United Nations experts today reiterated its call on Iranian authorities for the immediate release of seven Baha’i community leaders imprisoned five years ago this month with 20-year sentences – the longest of any current prisoners of conscience.

“The Iranian Government should demonstrate its commitment to freedom of religion by immediately and unconditionally releasing these prisoners of conscience,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said in a news release that also urged the international community, including faith leaders worldwide, to join in the appeal.

“These cases are apparently characterized by failures to safeguard fair trial standards and jeopardizes overall religious freedom in Iran” which does not officially recognize Baha’i.

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Loneliness: from ‘Prison Poems’

For the period of the campaign announced earlier this month by the Baha’i International Community, I felt that it would be more fitting, rather than using my own, to post poems taken from Mahvash Sabet’s powerful collection – ‘Prison Poems.’ For the latest update on the campaign’s progress see link.

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Five Years Too Many Update: Iran prisoners mark third year in confinement

Four days ago there was an excellent piece on the National Post on the situation of the seven Baha’i former leaders currently imprisoned in Iran. Better late than never to share it: see link for full post.

May 14th marks the third anniversary of the imprisonment of seven leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community. After an illegal 30-month detention in Tehran’s Evin Prison, the seven were tried and sentenced in August 2010. They had been members of a group permitted by the government up until their May 2008 arrest to attend to the minimal needs of the Baha’i community.

According to the prisoners’ lawyer, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, the court proceedings were a farce, producing no evidence of any crime. After an appeal, the 20-year sentences were reduced to ten years. Two months ago the court reinstated the 20-year sentences despite the fact that an appeal court had revoked three of the most egregious charges. To date, none of the court decisions, the original verdict or the ruling on appeal, have been given in writing to the prisoners or their attorneys.

Reports this past week indicate that the two women prisoners, Fariba Kamalabadi, a psychologist and mother of three, and Mahvash Sabet, a school principal, have been transferred to Qarchak prison, 60 km from Tehran.

“We understand that they are incarcerated with up to 400 other prisoners in a large warehouse-type room with minimal facilities,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

Roxana Saberi, the American journalist who spent several months in prison in Iran in 2009, has often spoken about the compassion that Kamalabadi and Sabet showed her when they were cellmates in Evin Prsion.

“They lifted our spirits, gave us hope, and took care of me when I was on a hunger strike,” wrote Saberi in a March 2011 Wall Street Journal article. “The seven men and women were accused of crimes such as insulting religious sanctities, spying for Israel — charges that were never proven.”

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Lights Out: from ‘Prison Poems’

For the period of the campaign announced earlier this month by the Baha’i International Community, I felt that it would be more fitting, rather than using my own, to post poems taken from Mahvash Sabet’s powerful collection – ‘Prison Poems.’ For the latest update on the campaign’s progress see link.

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Five Years Too Many Update: In London, seminar discusses access to justice in Iran

A new post on UK Bahai’ News relates another positive development in the campaign on behalf of the seven former Baha’i leaders in Iran, in prison now for five years. See this link for more.

LONDON, 9 May 2013 – Issues of due legal process and access to justice in Iran came under scrutiny at a high-level seminar, organised to mark the fifth anniversary of the arrest of Iran’s seven former Bahá’í leaders.

Held at the Law Society of England and Wales – and co-hosted by the Bar Human Rights Committee – the seminar on Thursday 9 May attracted more than 50 practising barristers, solicitors and human rights lawyers.

The seminar heard how the trial and sentencing of the seven Bahá’ís to 20 years in prison each, was conducted under proceedings that violated international and national Iranian laws. The case can be seen as a major example of wide scale abuses in the Iranian justice system, used as a tool of oppression against religious and ethnic minorities, human rights lawyers, activists and others.

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