wfn.org | Baha'i news: Trial for seven Baha'i leaders reportedly delayed

[Sally Weeks <sweeks@bwc.org>]

>Baha'i World News Service
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Trial for seven Baha'i leaders reportedly delayed

GENEVA, 13 July (BWNS) - Iranian officials have reportedly told families of  the seven Baha'i leaders currently held in Evin prison in Tehran that thei r trial has been delayed. No new trial date was given.

Held for more than a year, the seven were reportedly to have been tried on  Saturday, although this information, too, was based on oral reports from of ficials, and such reports have often been unreliable in the past.

The seven were arrested in the spring of 2008 and have been held more than  a year without formal charges or access to their attorneys. Official Irania n news reports have said the Baha'is will be accused of "espionage for Isra el, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Repub lic."

The seven are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Nae imi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. V ahid Tizfahm. All but one of the group were arrested on 14 May 2008 at thei r homes in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was arrested on 5 March 2008 while in Mashhad .

The Baha'i International Community has repeatedly said that the seven are b eing held solely because of their religious beliefs, calling for their imme diate release.

Such appeals for the release of the seven have been echoed by governments a nd human rights groups around the world. On Friday, Amnesty International i ssued a press release calling on Iranian authorities to release the seven.  On Thursday, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedo m, responding to a letter from Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journali st who spent almost four months in an Iranian cell, likewise urged the rele ase of the seven. Also on Thursday, European Parliament member Angelika Bee r, speaking on behalf of the Parliament's delegation for Iran, called for t he release of the seven, or, at the least, urged that any trial be free, fa ir and open.

To read the story online and see the photograph, go to: http://news.bahai.o rg/story/723