Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrats

PRIME MINISTER UNDERLINES CONCERN FOR IRAN'S DETAINED BAHA'IS IN MEETING WITH ÖPIK AND BAHÁ'Í DELEGATION

The Prime Minister has underlined the UK government's concern over the seven Bahá'í leaders being detained in Iran.

Mr Brown's remarks were made in a meeting which took place this afternoon (Wednesday) at the Prime Minister's office in the Houses of Parliament, attended by Mr Öpik - who is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá'ís group - and a delegation of three Bahá'ís, including two members of the national governing council of the Bahá'í Faith in the United Kingdom.

The prisoners - five men and two women - were arrested in spring 2008. Prior to their arrest they were members of an informal committee looking after the affairs of Iran's 300,000 strong Bahá'í community, the country's largest non-Muslim religious minority.

Expectations that a trial would take place on either 11 or 13 July have so far not been realised.

Charges against the seven have been reported in government-controlled mass media as "espionage for Israel", "insulting religious sanctities" and "propaganda against the Islamic republic". A further accusation of "spreading corruption on earth" has also been cited.

For more than a year, the seven have been detained in Tehran's notorious Evin prison without charge or access to their legal counsel, the Nobel laureate Dr Shirin Ebadi. A further 30 Bahá'ís are currently in prison in Iran.

"Recent events in Iran have clearly demonstrated to the world the methods utilized by the government - particularly the manipulation of the judiciary process, to arbitrarily impose its will on those it declares to be its enemies," said Mr Öpik. "The examples of the case of Roxana Saberi, the protesters picked up on the streets, in their homes and hospital beds, and the arrests of foreign and domestic journalists, among others, illustrate a pattern of arbitrary arrest, coercion, false confessions, baseless charges, and summary judgments."

The Bahá'í delegation was led by Dr Kishan Manocha, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United Kingdom. Also present were the Honourable Barney Leith, Director of Diplomatic Relations for the UK Bahá'í community, and Mrs Bahar Tahzib. Mrs Tahzib - originally from Iran, but now living in Sussex - shared with the Prime Minister her first hand experience of religious persecution. Her father Yusuf Subhani was executed in Iran for being a Bahá'í in June 1980. Her uncle, Mr Jamaloddin Khanjani, is one the seven detained Bahá'í leaders in Iran.

"My uncle is 75 years old and he is being kept in unsuitable conditions for more than a year," Mrs Tahzib told the Prime Minister. "This is clearly a cause of great concern for the family and their wish is for a fair trial."

"I was very touched by the Prime Minister's genuine expressions of sympathy and concern," said Mrs Tahzib after the meeting.

"We expressed our gratitude to the Prime Minister for the government's ongoing support of our persecuted co-religionists in Iran," said Dr Manocha, "and we particularly thanked Mr Brown for his personal support and understanding."

"The persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran is a matter of religious prejudice and has nothing to do with state security," said Dr Manocha, after the first ever meeting between a Bahá'í delegation and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. "The seven - along with the 30 other Bahá'ís currently in prison in Iran - are being held solely because of their religious beliefs. Their imprisonment and impending trial are part of a systematic effort to dismantle the Bahá'í leadership as part of a larger process to destroy the Bahá'í community in Iran."

Dr Manocha added "We raised the need for the seven Bahá'í leaders to be released immediately - and that if Iran refuses to do this, a public trial must be held that respects internationally recognized trial standards.

Ends/diwedd

Notes

The Bahá'í Faith was first established in Britain in 1898. Today's meeting was the first ever formal meeting between a Prime Minister and representatives of the UK Bahá'í community

The names of the seven detained Baha'is are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naemi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.

Some 30 Iranian Baha'is are currently in prison purely because of their religious beliefs. Baha'is who have been released on bail often have been required to put up exorbitant amounts of collateral. For example, six people arrested earlier this year in Tehran and released on bail in March - including a woman who had worked as a secretary for Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi - had to post the equivalent of more than $70,000 each.

Attacks against the Bahá'í community in Iran have escalated in recent months. In addition to arrests and home raids in a number of cities, persecution includes many documented instances of harassment of Bahá'í schoolchildren. At the university level, educational institutions remain virtually closed to Bahá'ís students. The few Bahá'ís who have managed to enroll are swiftly being expelled.

Home raids continue in various cities and usually follow the pattern of agents from the Ministry of Intelligence searching a home; confiscating computers, mobile phones, books, and other materials; and taking residents into custody. Cemetery desecrations have been common and, in addition to the destruction of gravestones, often involve hateful graffiti and other vandalism. In Semnan, a mortuary was burned and the graffiti threatened death to "unclean infidel Bahá'ís."

Accusations that Bahá'ís "insult religious sanctities" and promote "propaganda against the Islamic regime" are completely without foundation - Bahá'ís respect all religions, including Islam, and are loyal to government.