Baha'i News: Lawyer for jailed Baha'i leaders speaks out at European Parliament

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Lawyer for jailed Baha'i leaders speaks out at European Parliament 


BRUSSELS, Belgium, 29 June 2011 (BWNS) – One of the lawyers who defended Iran's 
seven imprisoned Baha'i leaders has made an impassioned plea for justice during 
an extraordinary meeting held at the European Parliament.

Mahnaz Parakand told the meeting that the expectation of the people of Iran is 
"not to be left alone by the governments and international organizations whose 
primary policy is the respect of humanity and human rights..."

All of Iran's peoples are "held in a large prison named the Islamic Republic of 
Iran," she said, "under various oppressions and sufferings, and are imprisoned, 
tortured and executed for a number of allegations." 

The meeting, held yesterday at a conference room within the European 
Parliament, was Ms. Parakand's first public appearance since fleeing her 
homeland after learning she was about to be arrested for her support of the 
seven Baha'i leaders and other cases, including that of Nasrin Sotoudeh – 
herself a lawyer, sentenced to 11 years in prison for representing human rights 
activists.

Members of the European Parliament – joined by staff from the European 
Commission and the European External Action Service – heard Ms. Parakand give a 
detailed account of the case of the seven, and of the escalating persecution 
faced by their co-religionists. 

"The pain and suffering that the Baha'is have to endure are in addition to the 
cruelties suffered by all the people of Iran," she said.

Expressing gratitude that she could "talk freely and without any restrictions, 
and without feeling unsafe and being afraid of being imprisoned and tortured," 
Ms. Parakand said she felt honoured to be "the voice of the martyrs who were 
executed merely for their beliefs," and "to speak loudly on behalf of those who 
spent a number of years in prison and were tortured merely for voicing their 
opinion..."  

Ms. Parakand said that she also spoke on behalf of "those who are barred from 
employment in government positions and those who have been deprived of higher 
education; those whose homes have been destroyed and even their cemeteries 
desecrated only for their beliefs; those individuals who are constantly 
harassed when pursuing private businesses, because of having a belief other 
than the one that is ruling the country."

Alluding to the Iranian authorities' recent attack on the Baha'i Institute for 
Higher Education – a community initiative offering higher education to young 
Baha'is barred from university – Ms. Parakand said she represented "the people 
who are deprived of having any kind of institutions for the education of their 
children, who are barred from entering schools and public universities.  

"If there are such institutions, they are closed and their managers are 
arrested and imprisoned," she said.

"I want to talk about those children who are not free to express their beliefs, 
otherwise they would be dismissed from school; talk about those who do not have 
the freedom of choosing their own friends and whose friendship with individuals 
who are not Baha'is is considered to be teaching the Baha'i Faith, leading to 
their being imprisoned and tortured."


A catalogue of injustices

Ms. Parakand is a member of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, founded by 
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, which handled the defence of the seven 
Baha'i leaders. At yesterday's meeting Ms. Parakand was able to provide the 
first detailed account of what happened behind closed doors during the trial of 
the seven Baha'i leaders last year, presenting a long list of injustices and 
legal mis-steps by the Iranian court system.

These included the clandestine arrests of the seven – without summons – in 
2008; their initial detention in solitary cells, without contact with their 
families; individual interrogations and their illegal imprisonment for more 
than two years without access to legal counsel; their trial on trumped-up 
charges; and the subsequent appeal procedure that saw their 20-year sentences 
reduced to 10 years, and then reinstated.

"The bill of indictment that was issued against our clients...was more like a 
political statement, rather than a legal document," recalled Ms. Parakand. "It 
was a 50-page document...full of accusations and humiliations leveled against 
the Baha'i community of Iran, especially our clients.  It was written without 
producing any proof for the allegations.

"There was only one bill of indictment issued for all the seven 
leaders...against all the legal standards, without specifying what kind of 
offence each one of them had been accused of," she said. 

The meeting heard that prior to the trial, during the two and a half years of 
illegal detention, neither Ms. Parakand nor her colleagues were allowed to 
visit their clients.  

"We diligently studied the case file, which contained over 2,000 pages, over 
the period of one month and studied each page carefully, trying to find out how 
and based on what reason, document, proof or witness the freedom of seven 
individuals had been taken away from them in that manner. Fortunately, we could 
not find any document or legal reason proving that any of the accusations that 
were leveled against our clients were true," she said. 

"We were hoping that they would be exonerated, as there was no reason for them 
to be convicted." 

After reviewing the case file, the lawyers were allowed only one meeting with 
the prisoners. "Our visit with the clients was conducted in such a condition 
that the prison authorities were monitoring, and the women present were 
clandestinely taping our conversation...This act violates the right of the 
clients to freely describe what happened to them in prison," explained Ms. 
Parakand.

Recalling the trial, Ms. Parakand spoke of numerous violations of legal 
procedures, and the presence in court of Ministry of Intelligence agents, 
intended to intimidate the defendants.

"One of the conditions of a fair trial is the impartiality of the presiding 
judge," said Ms. Parakand, whereas in this case, "the presiding judge...was 
using the same language and phrases outlined in the bill of indictment such as 
'perverse Bahaist sect.' This clearly shows the lack of impartiality of the 
presiding judge and an unfair trial based on one's belief."

During the trial, the judge often cut short the clients' defence statements on 
the pretence that their argument was considered to be 'teaching Bahaism', she 
said.

"The injustice imposed upon our clients...is a reflection of the oppression 
forced upon all the Baha'is who live in Iran," added Ms. Parakand.  


Appeal for continued  action

Ms. Parakand concluded by urging governments and organizations to demand that 
Iran modify its internal discriminatory laws against intellectual and religious 
minorities, and coerce those countries that violate human rights to follow 
precisely the content of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

She also appealed to the European Union to send a representative to Iran to 
investigate the situation of the seven Baha'i leaders, "to improve their 
unlawful current circumstances and to take necessary measures for their 
immediate release."  

Ms. Parakand's appearance at the European Parliament was at the invitation of 
Barbara Lochbihler, a German MEP, who is the chair of the Parliament's 
delegation for relations with Iran. Ms. Lochbihler assured Ms. Parakand that 
the situation of human rights in Iran is not forgotten.

In addition to the seven leaders, some 90 Baha'is are currently imprisoned in 
Iran, including nine staff and faculty members of the Baha'i Institute for 
Higher Education, still detained after raids on 39 Baha'i homes last month. 



To read the article online and view photographs, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/836


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