Handcuffed and chained at the ankles but not bowed in spirit, Farhad Sedghi has been sentenced in Iran to four years jail for teaching accountancy to Baha’i students barred from university because of their religion.
Only now are details emerging of the secret trial last month of seven Baha’i educators, including Mr Sedghi, 64, the brother of prominent Dubbo businessman, Nasser Sedghi.
The six men and one woman were sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to four years for being volunteers with the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education (BIHE), a home-based service teaching academic subjects to young Baha’is, who are banned from universities in Iran.
Authorities prevented foreign diplomats from attending the trial.
“Neither the defendants nor their lawyers has seen a written copy of the verdict,” said Diane Ala’i, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, “but we know from transcripts taken down by people present at the hearing that the seven were found guilty of ‘membership in the deviant Bahaist sect, with the goal of taking action against the security of the country, in order to further the aims of the deviant sect and those of organisations outside the country.'”
The judgments also cast the activities of the accused in BIHE as crimes – and as evidence of their supposed aim to subvert the state, Ms. Ala’i said.
Lawyer and academics
In Australia, letters of protest at the treatment of the educators have gone to the Ambassador of Iran, Dr Mahmoud Babaei, and international organisations from the Law Society of New South Wales, the NSW Young Lawyers Human Rights Committee, 73 university academics, and Universities Australia, which represents the vice-chancellors of all Australian universities.
“I write to respectfully urge that the Iranian Government ensure that the human rights of all people, including the Baha’i, are respected, protected and fulfilled, in accordance with Iran’s international human rights obligations,” the President of the Law Society of NSW, Stuart Westgarth, said in the letter to the Ambassador.
Federal Parliament
In the Federal Parliament of Australia on 2 November, the Member for Fadden, Stuart Robert MP, strongly condemned the trial and conviction of Baha’is involved in the BIHE.
“.. I think all members of the parliament will join with me in saying it is unacceptable for a nation to persecute its people based simply on their faith,” Mr Robert said.
“I also note that on 20 October Heiner Bielefeldt, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, made the point that Iran’s persecution of Baha’i is among the most extreme manifestations of religious intolerance and persecution in the world today,” he said.
“Baha’i as a community, as well as the United Nations, Amnesty, the European Union, the United States and publishers of a range of literature, have stated categorically that members of the Baha’i community in Iran have been, and are currently, subjected to:
- unwarranted arrests
- false imprisonment
- beatings
- torture
- unjustified executions; and
- confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals as well as by the community.
“They have been denied employment, they have been denied benefits, they have been denied civil rights and liberties and they have even been denied access to higher education.”
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