In May 2013, a group of independent United Nations experts reiterated its call on Iranian authorities for the immediate release of seven Baha’i community leaders.
“The Iranian Government should demonstrate its commitment to freedom of religion by immediately and unconditionally releasing these prisoners of conscience,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said in a news release that also urged the international community, including faith leaders worldwide, to join in the appeal.
“These cases are apparently characterized by failures to safeguard fair trial standards and jeopardizes overall religious freedom in Iran” which does not officially recognize Baha’i.
On 14 May 2008, authorities in Tehran arrested Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm. A seventh Baha’i leader, Mahvash Sabet, was earlier arrested on 5 March in the northern city of Mashhad near the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The seven had formed an ad hoc national administrative group for Iranian Baha’is called the Yaran.
Each member of the group received a 20-year prison sentences in August 2010 on charges of espionage, ‘propaganda against the regime,’ ‘collusion and collaboration for the purpose of endangering the national security,’ and ‘spreading corruption on earth.’
“These seven Baha’is are imprisoned solely for managing the religious and administrative affairs of their community,” said human rights expert El Hadji Malick Sow, who currently heads the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. “These persons were condemned after trials which did not meet the guarantees for a fair trial established by international law.
UN bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, have repeatedly expressed concern for discriminatory laws and policies that restrict Baha’is from forming religious institutions, entering universities and gaining public sector employment in Iran.
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Teacher and poet Mahvash Sabet is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Evin prison, Tehran. She is one of a group of seven Baha’i leaders known as the “Yaran-i-Iran” – “Friends of Iran” – who have been detained since 2008 for their faith and activities related to running the affairs of the Bahá’í community in Iran. Mahvash Sabet began writing poetry in prison, and a collection of her poetry entitled Prison Poems was published in English translation on 1 April 2013.
PEN International is calling on the Iranian authorities to release Mahvash Sabet and all other writers imprisoned in Iran solely for exercising their right to legitimate freedom of expression.
To take more action for Mahvash Sabet visit here
To read more about, and take action for, all of the cases highlighted by PEN International on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer visit here