wfn.org | Baha'i News: Due process ignored as trial date is set for Iranian Baha'i prisoners

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Due process ignored as trial date is set for Iranian Baha'i prisoners

>Baha'i World News Service

http://news.bahai.org <http://news.bahai.org/> 

>For more information, contact: news@bahai.org

Due process ignored as trial date is set for Iranian Baha'i prisoners

GENEVA, 12 August 2009 (BWNS) -- In yet another example of the denial to
Baha'is in Iran of their rights to justice, including due process, judicial
officials have reportedly set next Tuesday as the trial date for seven
imprisoned Baha'i leaders - despite the fact that the lead lawyers
registered with the court to represent them are either in prison or outside
the country.  

Further, efforts to have the accused released on bail have not succeeded.
The investigation against them was concluded months ago but they remain
incarcerated, without access to their legal counsel and with only the barest
minimum contact with their families - contact that did not begin until some
five months' after their arrest, when they were finally taken out of
solitary confinement.

Authorities recently sent to Abdolfattah Soltani, a key member of the legal
team representing the seven Baha'is who is himself currently imprisoned in
Evin prison, a notice saying that 18 August has been set as the trial date
for the seven Baha'is.  Dated 15 July, the writ of notification for the
seven gives 9 a.m., 18 August, as the date for the trial, in Branch 28 of
the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. That is the same court that tried
Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

The writ of notification giving 18 August as the trial date was specifically
addressed to Mr. Soltani, a well-known human rights lawyer and a principal
of the Tehran-based Defenders of Human Rights Center, which was founded by
Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and has since last year undertaken to defend the
seven Baha'is.   

Meanwhile, Mrs. Ebadi, the senior member of the legal team, remains outside
the country.

"The judiciary's decision to schedule the trial under these circumstances
is an effrontery and yet another tactic aimed at depriving the seven Baha'i
leaders of competent legal counsel," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'i
International Community's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

"The Iranian authorities know full well who is serving as legal counsel for
the Baha'is. Indeed, authorities have several times tried to pressure the
seven to change lawyers.

"It is the height of absurdity to issue a trial notice to a lawyer who has
himself been unjustly imprisoned," she said.

"The willingness of Iran's judiciary to flout the most fundamental
internationally accepted norms of jurisprudence were brought to light in the
widespread publicity attending the trial of Roxana Saberi. 

"More recently, the attention of the world has been focused on the show
trial of scores of individuals arrested in post-election turmoil in Iran,
also without due process and which has included 'confessions' that were
clearly coerced through torture," said Ms. Ala'i.

The Baha'i International Community has called for the human rights of all
the people of Iran to be respected and upheld.  "Today, then, we raise the
call on behalf of our innocent co-religionists, whose only 'crime' is their
religious belief, and who face the most severe punishments if they are found
guilty of the trumped-up charges against them.

"Instead of going on trial, they should be immediately released on bail,
and, at the very least, be given adequate time for their attorneys to
prepare a defense," said Ms. Ala'i.

Ms. Ala'i also said that the 18 August trial date could not be taken as
firm, noting that the families of the seven had been told in June they were
to be tried on 11 July, only to have that date come and go.

"Given the past history of this case, the utter lack of concern for
procedure on the part of authorities, and the current situation in Iran, it
is simply not possible to know when the proceedings will actually begin,"
she said.

The seven Baha'i prisoners are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin
Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz
Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All but one of the group were arrested on
14 May 2008 at their homes in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was arrested on 5 March
2008 while in Mashhad. They have since been held without formal charges or
access to their lawyers at Evin prison in Tehran.

Official Iranian news accounts have said the seven are to be accused of
"espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against
the Islamic republic," charges that are rejected completely and
categorically.

The ongoing imprisonment of the seven and pending trial is particularly
alarming because of their leadership position as the former members of a
national-level coordinating group known as the "Friends in Iran." Some 25
years ago, other Baha'i leaders were executed after being rounded up in a
manner similar to the way in which these seven were arrested last year.

For more information, go to http://news.bahai.org

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