UN EXPERTS URGE IRANIAN AUTHORITIES TO FREE JAILED BAHA’I COMMUNITY LEADERS

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 13 May 2013 15:00:00 -0400
Subject: UN EXPERTS URGE IRANIAN AUTHORITIES TO FREE JAILED BAHA'I
COMMUNITY LEADERS
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

UN EXPERTS URGE IRANIAN AUTHORITIES TO FREE JAILED BAHA'I COMMUNITY
LEADERSNew York, May 13 2013 3:00PMA 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.

On 14 May 2008, authorities in Tehran arrested Fariba Kamalabadi,
Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and
Vahid Tizfahm. A seventh Baha'i leader, Mahvash Sabet, was earlier
arrested on 5 March in the northern city of Mashhad near the borders
of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The seven had formed an ad hoc
national administrative group for Iranian Baha'is called the Yaran.

Authorities reportedly held the seven in custody for over 20 months
without charges and cut their access to lawyers, according to the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) whose UN
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention denounced the detentions in 2008.

Each member of the group received a 20-year prison sentences in August
2010 on charges of espionage, 'propaganda against the regime,'
'collusion and collaboration for the purpose of endangering the
national security,' and 'spreading corruption on earth.'

"These seven Baha'is are imprisoned solely for managing the religious
and administrative affairs of their community," said human rights
expert El Hadji Malick Sow, who currently heads the Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention. "These persons were condemned after trials which
did not meet the guarantees for a fair trial established by
international law.

UN bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, have repeatedly
expressed concern for discriminatory laws and policies that restrict
Baha'is from forming religious institutions, entering universities and
gaining public sector employment in Iran.

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner
Bielefeldt, warned that Baha'is in Iran are facing numerous
limitations on their ability to worship freely, "I again remind the
Government that, as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, it cannot distinguish between favoured and
un-favoured groups as far as freedom of religion is concerned."

The UN Independent Expert on Minorities issues, Rita Izsák, recalled
that Baha'is is Iran's largest non-Muslim religious minority. "Their
existence and religious identity must be protected under the UN
Declaration on Minorities," she stressed.

Hundreds of Baha'is have been reportedly arrested for acts including
organizing religious gatherings and advocating for the right to
education. In his March 2013 report to the UN Human Right Council, the
Special Rapporteur on Iran noted that at least 110 Baha'is were
imprisoned in the country at the start of the year.

Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council to
examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human
rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN
staff, nor are they paid for their work.May 13 2013 3:00PM
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