Saturday, July 11, 2009

It is not just democracy that is illegal in Iran (Cherie Blair)

We must not allow our focus on the current protests to blind us to the state persecution of Iran’s religious minorities

From FaithFreedom.org
It is not just democracy that is illegal in Iran
By Cherie Blair, Saturday, 11 July 2009
There have been many heroes and heroines in Iran in recent weeks. We have seen thousands take to the streets, risking arrest or even worse, in support of democracy.

Women have been in the forefront of these peaceful protests, which have, shamefully, been met with violence. It is their rights and hopes that are most under threat.

It is a fight for freedom and justice that Shirin Ebadi, the remarkable Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate, has been leading for decades. Dr Ebadi, a heroine of mine and thousands more around the world, has been tireless in her efforts to represent those facing persecution.

It was typical of her bravery, and her belief in the importance of justice, that she announced she would defend the leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community who were arrested last year before the latest protests. The reaction of the authorities was also typical. Her offices were raided and shut down, angry mobs appeared outside her home and she, and her family, received renewed and serious threats to their safety.

This will have come as little surprise to Dr Ebadi. Not only is she regarded as a thorn in the side of the Iranian authorities, but the Baha’i community, the country’s largest religious minority, has also been the target for severe persecution for much of its history.

For more than 100 years, the followers of the Baha’i faith, a world religion that has its roots in Iran, have faced discrimination and persecution for having progressive ideals that place great emphasis on the unity of religion, the equality of the sexes and the right to education. Bahai’is have been prevented from following their faith, on penalty of imprisonment and even execution.

Their fundamental rights continue to be violated. Arrests remain widespread and arbitrary. Baha’i children are bullied by school officials. Followers of the Baha’i faith can be denied access to higher education and banned from civil service posts. Pensions have been revoked and inheritances refused on grounds of Baha’i belief. Holy sites and graves have been destroyed.

The campaign against the Baha’i community reached a new intensity last spring when its seven-strong national leadership was arrested in dawn raids. More than a year after detention without charge or access to a lawyer, the prisoners’ families have finally been told a court date has been set for this Saturday.

We don’t yet know the charges. But Iranian news reports have suggested that the national committee stands accused of everything from “espionage for Israel” to “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Such charges carry very serious penalties in Iran, including the death penalty.

What is also very worrying are reports that the case will be heard by the same Revolutionary Court that recently tried, in secret, the US journalist Roxana Saberi. After proceedings lasting only one day, she was sentenced to eight years in jail.

It was only after the international outcry at this parody of justice and the severity of the sentence that she received another trial. This reduced her sentence to a two-year term that was suspended on appeal.

We need the same international pressure now, before the court case, to ensure the seven men and women receive a fair trial and a chance of justice. They must be given full access to their lawyers, who must have time to prepare their defence. The court proceedings must be open to independent observation.

Indeed, we must step up the pressure to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations not just on fair trials but on religious freedom. The Iranian constitution supposedly protects the rights of the country’s religious minorities. The reality, as many following other faiths in Iran can attest, is very different. And the 300,000 strong Baha’i community is deliberately excluded from even this nominal protection. Not only do they have no right to practice their faith, they are regarded as heretics who have abandoned Islam.

This gives the Iranian state an open invitation to mistreat and persecute followers of a religion which has a shared belief in the fundamental tenets of all the world’s leading religions and prophets. Far from posing a threat to the Government, its followers are expected to avoid political partisanship as an article of faith.

There is nothing secret about Iran’s systematic ill treatment of the Baha’i — a campaign that has worsened under President Ahmadinejad. The UK, European Union, US Congress, Canadian Senate, Australian Parliament and a range of leading non-governmental organisations have all monitored and condemned their mistreatment. The European Parliament condemned earlier this year the harassment of Dr Ebadi and the closure of her offices, and urged the release of the seven Baha’i leaders, who, it is believed, were imprisoned “solely on the basis of their belief’.

From within Iran, too, students and academics, artists and poets, political and social progressives have also bravely spoken up for the beleaguered Baha’i community. They, in turn, are now feeling the brunt of the state’s anger.

However, we must make sure that our understandable focus on the pro-democracy protests and their bloody suppression does not cause us to overlook the threat to the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. It is at times such as these that the Iranian authorities historically have heaped blame on the Baha’i population.

A fortnight ago, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, accused the British Government of supporting the “wayward Baha’i sect”. Banners have been paraded through Tehran’s streets displaying the words “BBC = Baha’i Broadcasting Company”. Today Iran’s Baha’is face a very uncertain, dangerous future.

We must urge the Iranian Government to give the leaders of the Baha’i community a fair trial and allow independent observers access to ensure this happens. We must also call on Iran to live up to its international obligations to protect all its citizens and allow them to hold and practise their religious beliefs without discrimination or fear.

Shirin Ebadi is a courageous woman and a brilliant advocate. But we cannot let her carry this burden on her own.

Cherie Blair is a barrister at Matrix Chambers. She is the wife of the former prime minister of UK.

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Cherie Blair: Iran’s Baha’is face “uncertain, dangerous future.”

From Iran Press Watch by BNUK - July 09, 2009:
Cherie Blair: Iran’s Baha’is face “uncertain, dangerous future.”
Cherie Blair QC – one of the United Kingdom’s leading human rights lawyers and wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair – is calling for Iran to ensure that seven leaders of the Bahá’í faith – held in prison for more than a year without charge or access to their legal counsel – be given a fair trial and a chance of justice.

In an article published in Thursday’s edition of The Times, Mrs Blair writes that, in the aftermath of Iran’s disputed Presidential election result, there is a risk that the ongoing threat to the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority may be overlooked. “They face a very uncertain, dangerous future,” writes Ms Blair.

Read Cherie Blair’s article here (Times Online)

The five men and two women, detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since the spring of 2008, helped see to the minimum needs of Iran’s Bahá’í community after all Bahá’í institutions were banned by the Iranian government. Their informal committee was disbanded along with all local-level Bahá’í administrative groups in Iran in March this year. Family members of the seven have recently been told that they will face trial on Saturday 11 July. Spurious allegations made against them include “espionage for Israel”, “insulting religious sanctities”, “propaganda against the Islamic republic” and “spreading corruption on earth.”

“We must urge that the Iranian Government give the leaders of the Bahá’í community a fair trial,” writes Mrs Blair, “and allow independent observers access to ensure this happens. We must also call on Iran to live up to their international obligations to protect all their citizens and allow them to hold and practise their religious beliefs, without discrimination or fear.”

Mrs Blair’s article also pays tribute to Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, who announced that she would defend the Bahá’í prisoners. As a result, Dr Ebadi’s “offices were raided and shut down, angry mobs appeared outside her home and she, and her family, received renewed and serious threats to their safety,” writes Mrs Blair.

“Shirin Ebadi is a courageous woman and a brilliant advocate. But we can not let her carry this burden on her own,” Mrs Blair says.

Source

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Cherie Blair Article in the Times

From Peter Hulme's blog-post Cherie Blair Article in the Times, Thursday, 09 July 2009:

Cherie Blair has written a strong piece today drawing attention to the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran. She states:
The campaign against the Baha’i community reached a new intensity last spring when its seven-strong national leadership was arrested in dawn raids. More than a year after detention without charge or access to a lawyer, the prisoners’ families have finally been told a court date has been set for this Saturday.

We don’t yet know the charges. But Iranian news reports have suggested that the national committee stands accused of everything from “espionage for Israel” to “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Such charges carry very serious penalties in Iran, including the death penalty.What is also very worrying are reports that the case will be heard by the same Revolutionary Court that recently tried, in secret, the US journalist Roxana Saberi. After proceedings lasting only one day, she was sentenced to eight years in jail.

The campaign against the Baha’i community reached a new intensity last spring when its seven-strong national leadership was arrested in dawn raids. More than a year after detention without charge or access to a lawyer, the prisoners’ families have finally been told a court date has been set for this Saturday.

We don’t yet know the charges. But Iranian news reports have suggested that the national committee stands accused of everything from “espionage for Israel” to “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Such charges carry very serious penalties in Iran, including the death penalty.

What is also very worrying are reports that the case will be heard by the same Revolutionary Court that recently tried, in secret, the US journalist Roxana Saberi. After proceedings lasting only one day, she was sentenced to eight years in jail.

It was only after the international outcry at this parody of justice and the severity of the sentence that she received another trial. This reduced her sentence to a two-year term that was suspended on appeal.

We need the same international pressure now, before the court case, to ensure the seven men and women receive a fair trial and a chance of justice. They must be given full access to their lawyers, who must have time to prepare their defence. The court proceedings must be open to independent observation.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

In UK row, EU warns Iran of 'further action'

From Press TV, Wed 08 July 2009:
In UK row, EU warns Iran of 'further action'
The European Union has threatened to take "further action" against Tehran if Iranian authorities refuse to release the last detained British Embassy staffer.

Ambassadors from three EU member states on Tuesday called for the "immediate release" of a British Embassy employee, who was arrested in Tehran following the disputed June 12 presidential election, a Swedish EU presidency statement said.

Sweden took over the rotating six-month presidency of the 27-member European Union from the Czech Republic on July 1.

Iran has released eight British embassy employees who were detained on charges of instigating the post-vote unrest in Iran.

This leaves Hossein Rassam -- who works as a political analyst at the UK mission in Tehran -- as the only staffer currently held in Iranian custody.

I
ran became the scene of opposition rallies after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced as the official winner of the 10th presidential election with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

Iran blames foreign powers, namely Britain, for interfering in its internal affairs and for playing a significant role in fueling the post-vote unrest, which claimed the lives of at least 20 people.

A lawyer for Rassam said on Sunday that his client was charged with breaching national security.

Several members of the European Union have sharply criticized the Iranian government's response to the rallies and have expressed strong opposition to the arrests of the nine local members of the British Embassy staff.

The EU troika also "condemned" the recent arrest of a French academic detained in Iran on charges of espionage.

"All EU member states stood behind the French request for an immediate release" of the teacher, the statement said.

On Tuesday, President Nicholas Sarkozy also demanded the immediate release of the French woman.

According to the French Foreign Ministry, Clotilde Reiss, 23, was arrested last week as she was about to leave Iran after spending five months studying at Isfahan University.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Monday claimed that Reiss' charges were related to pictures of Iran's post-election protests she had taken with her camera and sent by private email to her friend in Tehran. SF/MD/AA

Monday, July 06, 2009

EU presidency condemns Iran for executions

From Reuters Sunday July 05, 2009:
EU presidency condemns Iran for executions
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Sunday denounced Iran for a recent spate of executions, highlighting Saturday's hanging of 20 drug traffickers.

The rebuke, issued by Sweden days after assuming the EU's rotating six-month presidency, comes as the 27-nation bloc searches for a unified response to Tehran following its post-election crackdown and detention of British embassy staff.

"The Presidency strongly condemns the executions in Iran during the past few days, in particular the execution of 20 persons in Iran on 4 July," Sweden said in the statement, adding Iran should abolish the death penalty entirely.

Prior to Saturday's hangings, Iranian media reported last week that six drug traffickers were executed in a prison in Qom and six people were hanged for murder in Tehran.

On Friday, EU countries summoned Iranian ambassadors to protest the detention of British embassy employees, and are mulling tougher measures in future such as visa bans and the withdrawal of EU ambassadors from Iran.

Of the nine British embassy staff detained and accused of inciting the street protests in Iran, one remains in custody and one was set to be released on Sunday.

While the EU has led the international outcry over Tehran's crackdown on demonstrators protesting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 12 presidential elections, some of the bloc's members fear going too far and derailing talks on Iran's nuclear program.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for harsher sanctions against Iran, but analysts say Germany and Italy are among those skeptical.

(Reporting by Anne Jolis; Editing by Jon Hemming)