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Issue Number 51, dated 10/5/98

32 Baha'i's arrested (Serial 5111)

 

The assault of press freedom has been accompanied by attacks onIranian Baha'is, with 32 members of the outlawed sect arrested in a3-day nation-wide sweep in 14 different cities that ended on October1.

Gerald Filson, a spokesman for the Baha'i Community of Canada,said that most of those arrested were faculty members of the Baha'iInstitute of Higher Education, also known as the Baha'i OpenUniversity. Baha'i property was seized in 14 cities across Iran,including Tehran, Tabriz, Hamedan, Zanjan and Khorramabad, on ordersof the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS). Filson said thepurpose of the arrests appeared to be to force closure of the Baha'iOpen University, established to give Baha'is an opportunity to get aneducation, since the authorities have prevented Baha'is fromcompleting high school or attending universities in Iran.

Gholamhossain Amini, a board member of the Baha'i Institute ofHigher Education who was released in Tehran shortly after his arrest,was told to convey the message that the Baha'i institution mustclose, according to Baha'i representatives.

The crackdown comes after an Islamic court in Mashad confirmeddeath sentences handed down earlier this year against two Baha'is forconverting a Muslim woman to the Baha'i faith, Cyrus Zabihi-Moghaddamand Hedayat Kashefi Najafabadi. A third Baha'i, Ataullah HamidNasirizadeh, was told orally that his death sentence had beencommuted to ten years imprisonment. The three were arrested inOctober 1997 along with a fourth Baha'i, Ruhollah Rowhani. Rowhaniwas executed on July 21, despite the refusal of Iran's Supreme Courtto confirm the death sentence handed down in Mashad against him. Thewoman they allegedly converted has claimed she was born a Baha'i.

These latest death sentences bring to seven the total number ofBaha'is facing execution in Iran. In Washington, U.S. StateDepartment spokesman James Rubin called on the Iranian authoritiesnot to carry out the executions. "We have urged publicly and willcontinue to urge publicly that the government of Iran protect membersof the Baha'i faith," Rubin said on Oct. 1.

President Khatami has not commented on the situation of Baha'is inIran, except for vague statements calling for religious tolerance.

The Resalati faction in Iran, which existed under the Shah andcontinues to demonstrate strong support from the Bazaar, has longsought to repress the Baha'i's. After widespread repression of theBaha'is during the first few years of the Revolution, including 200executions, the regime refrained from high-profile acts of repressionagainst the Baha'i community until last year, perhaps in response toextensive lobbying by the U.S. and European Baha'i community onbehalf of human rights in Iran. If so, the upsurge in anti-Baha'iactions could mean that the regime no longer fears U.S. or Europeanreprisals.