{"id":1131,"date":"2009-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/news\/leaders-to-face-trial\/"},"modified":"2017-10-14T04:51:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T04:51:13","slug":"leaders-to-face-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/leaders-to-face-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders to face trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/Portals\/0\/friends%20in%20iran.jpg\" alt=\"Leaders to face trial\" \/><figcaption>The seven Baha&#8217;i leaders Standing L to R: Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, and Mahvash Sabet Seated L to R: Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Australian Baha\u2019i Community is calling for the immediate release of seven Baha\u2019i leaders in Iran, who reports indicate will be tried before the Revolutionary Court next week.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian Baha\u2019i Community is calling for the immediate release of seven Baha\u2019i leaders in Iran, who reports indicate will be tried before the Revolutionary Court next week.<\/p>\n<p>They will face false charges of espionage, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have grave fears for the safety of these innocent people, who are effectively the leadership of Iran\u2019s biggest religious minority,\u201d a spokesperson for the Australian Baha\u2019i Community, Tessa Scrine, said today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Australian Baha\u2019i Community, which includes close relatives of the accused in its membership, calls for the immediate release of these Baha\u2019is,\u201d Ms Scrine said.<\/p>\n<p>Reports from Iran and via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/afp\/article\/ALeqM5gm3BC6Bpgv5iJ4wPzxgp9HftDhrA\">AFP<\/a> overnight indicate that the seven are to face court next week on charges of \u201cespionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese charges are absurd, as the world community and the Iranian authorities well know. These individuals are innocent, law-abiding citizens who have not been involved in any partisan political activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms Scrine said one of the seven has been imprisoned since March last year and the other six since May, and none had been charged until now.<\/p>\n<p>They have had no access to their lawyer, Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMrs Ebadi has been harassed and threatened since agreeing to take on their case, and the authorities have refused to provide her access to the case files,\u201d Ms Scrine said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the Iranian authorities refuse to release them, we call for the seven to receive access to their lawyer and for representatives of foreign governments and NGOs to be permitted to attend any trial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On 19 December 2008, the United Nations passed a resolution co-sponsored by Australia that criticised \u201cincreasing discrimination\u201d by Iran against Baha\u2019is and others.<\/p>\n<p>On 29 October and twice in June 2008, Australian Government spokespeople publicly expressed their deep concern about what is happening to the Baha\u2019is of Iran.<\/p>\n<p>International organisations and governments have condemned the latest announcement. View some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/iran.bahai.us\/\">international reaction<\/a> here.<\/p>\n<p>Download a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bahai.org.au\/docs\/Backgrounder_trial.pdf\">backgrounder<\/a> for further details.<\/p>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.bahai.org\/story\/695\">biographies<\/a> of the seven leaders<\/p>\n<p>(updated on 14 February 2009)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Australian Baha\u2019i Community is calling for the immediate release of seven Baha\u2019i leaders in Iran, who reports indicate will be tried before the Revolutionary Court next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-releases","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - 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