wfn.org | BWNS -- Wrong imprisoned Baha'i dies in Iranian jail

[Baha'i World News Service <bwns@bwc.org>]

Baha'i World News Service
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Wrong imprisoned Baha'i dies in Iranian jail
NEW YORK, 19 December 2005 (BWNS) -- A Baha'i who was wrongly jailed in
Iran for 10 years died in his prison cell of unknown causes on Thursday,
15 December 2005, the Baha'i International Community has learned.

Mr. Dhabihu'llah Mahrami, 59, was held in a government prison in Yazd
under harsh physical conditions at the time of his death.

His death comes amidst ominous signs that a new wave of persecutions of
Baha'is has begun. This year so far, at least 59 Baha'is have been
arrested, detained or imprisoned, a figure up sharply from the last
several years.

Arrested in 1995 in Yazd on charges of apostasy, Mr. Mahrami was
initially sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life
imprisonment after an international outcry and widespread media
attention.

"The worldwide Baha'i community mourns deeply the passing of Mr.
Mahrami, who was unjustly held for a decade on trumped-up charges that
manifestly violated his right to freedom of religion and belief," said
Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International
Community to the United Nations.

"While the cause of his death is not known, Mr. Mahrami had no known
health concerns," said Ms. Dugal.

"We also know that Mr. Mahrami was forced to perform arduous physical
labor and that he had received death threats on a number of occasions.

"In this light, there should be no doubt that the Iranian authorities
bear manifest responsibility for the death of this innocent man, whose
only crime was his belief in the Baha'i Faith," said Ms. Dugal.

"In our mourning, we nevertheless hope that Mr. Mahrami's unexplained
passing will not go unnoticed by the world at large and, indeed, that
his case might become a cause for further action towards the
emancipation of the Baha'i community of Iran as a whole," said Ms.
Dugal.

Born in 1946, Mr. Mahrami served in the civil service but at the time of
his arrest was making a living installing venetian blinds, having been
summarily fired from his job like thousands of other Baha'is in the
years following the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Although Iranian officials have asserted that Mr. Mahrami was guilty of
spying for Israel, court records clearly indicate that he was tried and
sentenced solely on charge of being an "apostate," a crime which is
punishable by death under traditional Islamic law.

Although Mr. Mahrami was a lifelong Baha'i, the apostasy charge
apparently came about because a civil service colleague, in an effort to
prevent Mr. Mahrami from losing his job, submitted to a newspaper an
article stating that he had converted to Islam.

When it later became clear to Iranian authorities that Mr. Mahrami
remained a member of the Baha'i community, they arrested him and charged
him with apostasy for allegedly converting from Islam to the Baha'i
Faith. On 2 January 1996, he was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary
Court, a conviction that was later upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court.

The death sentence against Mr. Mahrami stirred an international outcry.
The European Parliament, for example, passed a resolution on human
rights abuses in Iran, making reference to Mr. Mahrami's case. The
governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, the United
Kingdom, and the United States also registered objections.

There was also significant media coverage of the case, in Le Monde and
Liberation in France, as well as reports by the BBC, Reuters and Agence
France Presse.

Although the authorities did not publicly bow to international pressure
calling for Mr. Mahrami's release, in December 1999 they took the
occasion of the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad to
declare an amnesty and commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

Since 1978, more than 200 Iranian Baha'i have been killed, hundreds more
have been imprisoned, and thousands have been deprived of jobs, pensions
and education as part of a widespread and systemic religious persecution
by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As of October, Mr. Mahrami was one of nine Baha'is being held in Iranian
prisons. However, all of the others had been arrested in 2005.

Mr. Mahrami is survived by his aged mother, his wife, his four children,
and his grandchildren.

Mr. Mahrami's funeral was held on Friday, 16 December 2005, the same day
that the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution expressing
"serious concern" over the human rights situation in Iran, making
specific mention of the ongoing persecution of the Baha'i community
there.	(See http://news.bahai.org/story.cfm?storyid=413)