Seven Baha’is in Iran may face new charge
Updated: Tuesday, May 12, 2009
19:45GMT—3:45PM/EST
Washington, 12 May (WashingtonTV)—Seven members of the Baha’i faith, who have been detained in Iran for nearly one year, may face a new accusation, the World Baha’i News Service reported on Tuesday.
Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the imprisonment of the five men and two women, who have not been formally charged and been denied access to their lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
According to the report, their families have recently been informed of a possible new charge, of being “the corrupt on Earth”, which is punishable by death.
On 10 February, Tehran deputy prosecutor, Hassan Haddad, said that the seven had been accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”
“Now a wrongful accusation reportedly has been added some three months after the investigation was supposed to have concluded,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.
According to Dugal, the same charge of being “the corrupt on Earth” was used against Baha’is who were executed in the years immediately following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“That it may now be resorted to in this case is a further demonstration that the authorities have no basis for any allegation against the seven individuals, other than blatant religious persecution,” she said.
The seven Baha’is are member of Iran’s national Baha’i leadership group. All but one were arrested in Tehran on 14 May 2008, as one was arrested two months earlier in her home in Mashhad.
The Baha’i faith, which was founded in Iran in 1863, is not recognized by the Iranian government.
According to the Baha’i World News Service, nearly 30 members of that faith are imprisoned in Iran “solely on account of their religion.”
Source: World Baha’i News Service
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