Joschka Fischer must use his contacts with Iran and take action to secure the release of the seven leading Baha´i in custody

Joschka Fischer must use his contacts with Iran and take action to secure the release of the leaders of the Baha´i religious community, who were arbitrarily arrested. This urgent appeal was addressed by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) to the former foreign minister and the chairperson of his party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen after a date for a hearing for Sunday (12.07.2009) for the seven Baha´i was again postponed. The two women and five men have been held for 14 months in the notorious Teheran Evin prison, waiting for their court case with practically no contact to the outside world. They are threatened with the death penalty for supposedly „spying for Israel“, „insulting religious feelings“ and „propaganda against the Islamic Republic“. The prisoners protest vigorously against these charges. Their lawyer, the human rights expert and Nobel Prize winner Ms. Shirin Ebadi, has only been allowed to take a short look at the very voluminous files.

„Please do not allow the suffering of these seven Baha´i to be prolonged! They need help urgently!“ says the letter of the human rights organisation to Fischer. „The Iranian government is playing for time so that public opinion can turn its attention to other matters and an arbitrary verdict can be passed against these innocent people without arousing any attention.“

The Iranian secret service arrested six of the prisoners – Ms. Fariba Kamalabadi and the two men Jamaloddin Khanjani, Arif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm, on 14th May 2008 at their houses. The Baha´i Secretary, Ms. Msahvash Sabet, was arrested on 5th March. The seven Baha´i had maintained a kind of „emergency administration“ for their religious community in the full knowledge of the Iranian government. In 1980 / 81 the entire National Council of the Baha´i of Iran was abducted and murdered.

The Baha´i make up with 300,000 members the largest religious minority of Iran. They are seen there as „apostates“, as lapsed from the Islamic faith. They are for this reason discriminated, suppressed and persecuted. Since Mahmud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 they have been systematically disadvantaged, denounced and monitored. There are constant arbitrary arrests.

The Baha´i religion was founded in Iran in the 19th century by Baha´ullah. It has throughout the world about 7.7 million adherents.