Photo: Brenton Edwards
A major Australian newspaper has given prominent coverage to the fate of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders whose recent 20 year sentence has prompted widespread international outrage.
In The Weekend Australian edition of 21 August 2010, multi-award winning journalist Sally Neighbour begins her story by describing the noble character of one of the leaders, Behrouz Tavakkoli, through the words of his brother Amin, who lives in Australia.
According to the article, Amin says his psychologist brother spent much of his adult life working with the physically and mentally handicapped and was a “real angel”.
Ms Neighbour’s report outlines the charges against the seven and their sentences and describes the critical reaction to the outcome by:
- The Australian Baha’i Community
- Amnesty International, who described the trial as ‘a parody’
- Foreign governments
- Nobel Prize-winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi, whose Defenders of Human Rights Centre represented the detainees
The report was published on page 2 of the newspaper with the headline “Brother’s pain over Iran jailing”. It was accompanied by a colour photograph of Amin Tavakkoli. The newspaper has a circulation of 300,000 throughout Australia and a readership of 864,000.