Fears for the lives of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran have mounted after reports of allegations made against them, a spokesperson for the Australian Baha’i Community, Tessa Scrine, said today.
“The allegations are so serious that we are now very apprehensive that the lives of these innocent people are at real risk,” Ms Scrine said.
“We categorically deny the allegations,” she said.
Ms Scrine was reacting to reported allegations by Hasan Haddad, deputy prosecutor general for security at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, that seven Baha’is detained this year have “confessed” to operating an “illegal” organization, and took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system.
Non-political
“The Baha’is in Iran, like their counterparts around the world, scrupulously adhere to our religion’s longstanding and well-known principle of non-involvement in political affairs, let alone seditious activities,” Ms Scrine said.
Ms Scrine said allegations of collusion with the state of Israel are false and misleading.
“Iranian authorities know full well that the world headquarters of the Baha’i Faith have been in the holy land since the 19th century, long before the establishment of Israel, and Baha’is have never been involved in political activities there or anywhere else,” she said.
“Baha’is in Iran are being persecuted for the practice of their religion, the proof of which lies in the fact that they are offered their freedom if they convert to Islam,” she said.
“There is a well-documented and shameful plan to eliminate the 300,000 strong Baha’i community in Iran, and these latest allegations are repetitions of charges the authorities know to be false.”
Australian Government
Ms Scrine said the Australian Baha’i Community is grateful for two recent statements by the Australian Government condemning the arrests and the continued detention of the Baha’i leaders, who are being held without access to lawyers and only minimal telephone contact with their families.
On 6 June, an Australian Government representative to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Guy O’Brien, said Australia was “deeply concerned by news of the arrests of the Baha’i leaders,” and called upon the council to play an active role in ensuring the protection of the right to freedom of religion.
A week earlier, a spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that Australia was “deeply concerned by the continuing discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Baha’is on the grounds of their religion”.
“We regularly make representations to the Iranian Government on human rights issues and have raised our concerns about the treatment of the Baha’i,”the spokesman said, adding: “We will monitor this situation closely.”
Ms Scrine also noted that on 2 August 2008 the United States Congress passed House Resolution 1008, condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran, by a vote of 408-3.
Condemnations of the recent upsurge in persecution of the Baha’is in Iran have also come from Canada and the European Union.
Visit the Baha’i World News Service for further information.
Read a Reuters report on the allegations.