wfn.org | Bahai news: British Baha'is meet with Prime Minister Brown on Iran concerns

[Sally Weeks <sweeks@bwc.org>]

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British Baha'is meet with Prime Minister Brown on Iran concerns

LONDON, 16 July (BWNS) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met this week  with members of the U.K. Baha'i community and underlined his government's c oncern over the seven Baha'i leaders being detained in Iran.

Mr. Lembit Opik, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Baha'i s group, accompanied three Baha'i representatives to the meeting, held yest erday at the prime minister's office in the Houses of Parliament.

One of the Baha'is, Mrs. Bahar Tahzib - originally from Iran but now living  in England - shared with Mr. Brown her first-hand experience of religious  persecution. Her father was executed in Iran in June 1980 for being a Baha' i, and her uncle, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, is one the seven Baha'i leaders  arrested in the spring of 2008 and jailed since then in Evin prison in Tehr an.

Charges against the seven have been reported in government-controlled mass  media as "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaga nda against the Islamic republic" - accusations the Baha'i International Co mmunity categorically denies. No formal charges have been filed, however, a nd the seven Baha'is have had no access to attorneys.

Families of the prisoners had been informed that there would be a trial thi s past week, but now the families reportedly have been told there is a dela y. No new trial date has been given.

Before their arrest, the prisoners were members of an informal committee lo oking after the affairs of Iran's 300,000-member Baha'i community, the coun try's largest non-Muslim religious minority. At least 30 Baha'is are curren tly being held in Iranian prisons because of their religion.

"I was very touched by the prime minister's genuine expressions of sympathy  and concern," Mrs. Tahzib said after yesterday's meeting with Mr. Brown.

"My uncle is 75 years old, and he is being kept in unsuitable conditions fo r more than a year," Mrs. Tahzib said she told the prime minister. "This is  clearly a cause of great concern for the family, and their wish is for a f air trial."

Mr. Opik noted that recent events in Iran have shown the world the methods  - including  manipulating the judiciary process - that the Iranian governme nt uses to impose its will.

"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 arres t, coercion, false confessions, baseless charges, and summary judgments," h e said.

The other Baha'is who met with Prime Minister Brown were Dr. Kishan Manocha , secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United  Kingdom, and Mr. Barney Leith, director of diplomatic relations for the U. K. Baha'i community.

To read the article online, go to: http://news.bahai.org/story/724