February 12, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC – After Iran arrested all seven national Bahá'í leaders almost a year ago, it is now expected to put them on trial in revolutionary court next week. The charges against the seven, who are being held at Iran's infamous Evin Prison, include "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic."

"The charges, particularly of espionage, are absurd," said Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski. "The arrest of Iran's top Bahá'í leaders has simply been another move to intimidate and undermine the faith's followers. Iran has an especially poor record in respecting the right to worship of non-Shiite Muslims, and we call on them to drop the charges and release the prisoners."

Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi is the lawyer of the seven leaders, but she has been denied access to them or their files. Bahá'í followers fear the trial could lead to the execution of the seven.

The last major round-ups, detentions and executions of national Bahá'í leaders came in the early 1980s. In 1980, all nine members of the national leadership were abducted and then disappeared.

Iran's 300,000 Bahá'ís have no official clergy. Since their spiritual assemblies were outlawed in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, they have relied on electing national and local committees as leaders of the faith. As a result, the most recent arrests of the seven national leaders are the worst assault on the faith in some 30 years, and have dealt a particularly hard blow to the Bahá'í community.

Arrested in May 2008 in the above photo are, in the front row seated from the left, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie. Standing from the left are Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani and Afif Naeimi. On the far right is Mahvash Sabet, detained since March 2008.

Institute on Religion and Public Policy