Mass Arrests of Baha'i Educators in Iran Two Death Sentences
Confirmed
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- At today's daily briefing the State
Department's spokesman, James Rubin, stated that the death sentences of
two Iranian Baha'is have been confirmed and that 32 Baha'i teachers have
been arrested.
The teachers were arrested in fourteen cities throughout Iran over
the last three days. Iranian government officials also confiscated
classroom equipment and plundered homes of Baha'is in several cities
throughout the country. Earlier this week prison authorities in Mashhad
told two Baha'i prisoners that their death sentences have been confirmed.
Another Baha'i in the same prison was executed by hanging in July.
Since the early 1980's the Iranian Government has barred Baha'is
from universities because of their religious beliefs. Baha'i teachers
have been providing university-level instruction to college-age youth in
private homes. All Baha'is who had been faculty in Iranian universities
had been dismissed from their positions shortly after the Islamic
Revolution.
In Mashhad death sentences were confirmed against Mr. Sirus Zabihi-
Moghaddam and Mr. Hedayat Kashefi Najafabadi. They were arrested in the
fall of 1997 for holding religious "family life" meetings. Along with
the recently executed Baha'i, Mr. Ruhollah Rowhani, they were sentenced
to death in January or February after secret trials at which they received
no legal representation. A fourth Baha'i prisoner in Mashhad, who had also
been sentenced to death earlier this year, Mr. Ataollah Hamid Nasirizadeh,
was informed orally this week that his sentence had been commuted to ten
years' imprisonment.
"It is particularly disturbing that the confirmation of the death
sentences was conveyed orally," said American Baha'i spokesman Dr. Firuz
Kazemzadeh. "This suggests that the Iranian authorities are trying to
conceal this miscarriage of justice."
Mr. Rowhani was summarily executed on July 21, 1998. Mr. Rowhani
had been charged with converting a Muslim woman to the Baha'i Faith, a
charge the woman refuted. The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in
Tehran at first denied the execution and even referred to Mr. Rowhani as
an "imaginary individual." Iranian authorities later acknowledged the
execution but stated that Mr. Rowhani had been executed for crimes against
national security.
"In the light of statements made by President Khatami, we had expected
there would be an improvement in the situation of the Baha'is in Iran.
This week's mass arrests of teachers and the confirmation of two death
sentences on purely religious grounds are further evidence of a coordinated
campaign by the Iranian Government aimed at the destruction of the Baha'i
community," Dr. Kazemzadeh said.
Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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