Just five days before the trial of seven former leaders of the Baha’is in Iran, prominent citizens have expressed concern at the continued persecution of the community and urged the government of India to speak out.
Maja Daruwala, director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said, “This trial is designed to harass and intimidate and is one more in a line of persecution of this community. Our country has a record of pluralism and tolerance and must speak out.”
According to lawyer Zia Mody, senior partner in AZB & Partners, “The campaign in the Iranian media wrongly accusing the Baha’is of being behind the recent civil unrest in Iran on the holy day of Ashura is extremely worrying, given its timing. This is unhappily evident from the articles being published right now by Iran’s most widely read paper.”
The seven Baha’is — two women and five men — were arrested in the spring of 2008 and are in the notorious Evin prison. News accounts have said they are to be accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic republic”. Some of these charges carry the death penalty.
The Baha’i international community is concerned that the government, or ultra-conservative elements within it, may use the turmoil in Iran as a cover for extreme measures against the Baha’i leaders.
This concern deepened on Sunday when authorities rounded up 13 Baha’is from their homes in Tehran, took them to a detention centre, and tried to get them to sign a document saying that they would not engage in any future demonstrations, though none of them had taken part in any demonstration.
UN agencies, governments, parliaments, NGOs, and prominent individuals across the globe — including an increasing number of Iranians — have raised their voice against the systematic persecution of the Baha’is in Iran. A strongly worded resolution was issued by the UN general assembly in December 2009.
In February 2009, more than 30 prominent Indians, including justice VR Krishna Iyer, actor Aamir Khan, religious leaders Maulana Khalid Rasheed and Swami Agnivesh, and others had issued an open letter appealing to Tehran to free the “innocent prisoners” or at least grant them an open and fair trial.
