Iran’s Prosecutor-General: Imprisoned Baha’i Leaders Accepted the Charges

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Editor’s Note: Earlier today, Iran’s Prosecutor-General declared that the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders have confessed to the charges brought against them. This blatant lie and utter misrepresentation is the latest in what is fast becoming a long line of dubious statements made by the Prosecutor-General. Meanwhile, the seven detained Baha’is continue to be deprived of due process and the opportunity to meet with their attorney.

034773Responding to the public outcry from western nations [against Iran] for the plight of seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders, Iran’s Prosecutor-General stated, “These individuals have accepted the charges [brought against them.]”

On Friday (27 February 2009), Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, Iran’s Prosecutor General, labeled criticisms raised by the European Union and the United States as a “tired old” tactic, stating, “Despite the fact that these individuals have accepted the charges [brought against them], the West – including the United States – claims that Iran is bent on suppressing them by violating human rights laws.”

[Source: http://www.radiofarda.com/content/o2_iran_prosecutor_general_bahai/1500620.html]

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20 Responses

  1. Frank

    February 27, 2009 7:51 pm

    This reminds of the the following case in Iran not too long ago:

    In early 1999, thirteen Iranian Jews were arrested and imprisoned by Iranian authorities in the city of Shiraz. The arrested included a rabbi, community leaders and a sixteen year old boy. Eleven of the arrested were from Shiraz, two from Isfahan. While the 13 were not formally charged for well over a year, the Iranian Government accused them of spying for the “Zionist regime” and “world arrogance” – Iranian code words for Israel.

    Their Trial:

    After almost seventeen months in prison, the trial of the 13 Jews opened on May 1, 2000 in the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz. Hearings were held every Monday and Wednesday until May 29. The thirteen defendants were brought to the courtroom in shifts over the five-week trial.

    In the period before their trial, the 13 defendants had very limited access to family and were only periodically allowed to received kosher food. Three of the defendants, Nejat Broukhim, Omid Tefillen and the youngest prisoner, Navid Bala Zadeh, were released on bail in early 2000.

    As is the norm in the Revolutionary Court system, the judge in the case, Sadeq Nurani, also served as investigator and as prosecutor. Throughout the months leading up to the trial, the judge, as investigator and prosecutor visited the defendants in prison. It was he who compiled the “evidence” against the defendants and allegedly heard their “confessions.”

    According to Iranian law and international legal convention, all defendants have the right to choose their own legal representation. However, from the time of their arrest, the 13 Jews were denied the right to choose their own attorney. Shortly before the trial began, the Judiciary announced that eight of the defendants were now permitted to hire their own lawyers, and that two had been assigned court-appointed lawyers. In fact, none of the defendants were permitted to freely choose their own lawyer and the “defense team” was actually assigned by the Revolutionary Court.

    The trial itself violated international legal norms. The court was closed to all observers, including the defendants’ families, Jewish community leadership, foreign diplomats and representatives of human rights groups present in Shiraz. No evidence was presented.

    Khamanie’s verdict:
    Guilty

    http://www.adl.org/backgrounders/Iranian_Jews.asp

    Reply
  2. Nasir

    February 27, 2009 7:59 pm

    Every time mollahs want to cover up their corruption, they attack the Baha’is. In previous years, the attacks were us to convert us to Islam for “our own good”. Then they wanted us to confess to spying for “our own good”. Starting in 1988, they went back and wanted us to convert to Islam for “our own good”. Now they again want us to confess to spying again for “our own good.”

    Perhaps this time around Iranians can decide for themselves for whose good are Baha’is being targeted?

    Reply
  3. Peter

    February 27, 2009 8:07 pm

    Iran’s desperate hard-line clerics seem to have assumed that anti-Baha’i and anti-Israeli sentiment among rival factions of the regime are strong enough to make them use the Baha’is as scapegoats to cover their utter failure in addressing the social and economic needs of Iranians.

    But the reports of international journalists and observers leave no doubt that most Iranians see the absurdity of the charade and view the “confessions” with contempt.

    Reply
  4. R K

    February 27, 2009 8:13 pm

    The regime had one overriding aim from the moment it arrested us. It was to force us to reject our beliefs and show that its lashes were stronger than our ideals.

    Reply
  5. Akio

    February 27, 2009 8:16 pm

    Under the bizarre justice system of the Islamic Republic, convictions of the accused under Ta’zir law are primarily based not on evidence but on confessions. Thus the use of torture as a tool to obtain confession is built into the very structure of the theocratic order. Therefore, it is quite logical that the presiding judge in the trial also functions as the prosecutor.

    The medieval ta’zir law in the Islamic Republic allows both physical punishment and voluntary confession. Mollahs have often told UN delegations that ta’zir should not be equated with torture because it is sanctioned by the sharia and administered by qualified Islamic magistrates to obtain confessions.

    Reply
  6. Tooba

    February 27, 2009 8:21 pm

    There is nothing even close to fear of God (khashiyyat’u’llah) in the heart or mind of Dorrinajafabadi. They really think God is absent from the situation. One even doubts their adherence to Islam.

    Reply
  7. RSS

    February 27, 2009 8:40 pm

    Again, I posted earlier how Baha’is uphold to this exhortation revealed by Baha’u’llah:

    “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues.”

    The prosecutor-general in no way can convince the hearts of humanity that these precious, pure seven souls have ‘confessed’. We must hear it from their own tongues.

    Reply
  8. John F

    February 27, 2009 9:09 pm

    What stays in Evin, should not stay in Evin!

    Evin, Islamic Republic’s Bastille where mollahs obtain confessions or conversion to “true Islam” accommodates 1,500+ inmates with 100+ solitary cells and multiple interrogation chambers where they administer brute force; bastinado; sleep deprivation; extensive solitary confinement; glaring searchlights; standing in one place for hours on end; nail extractions; snakes; electrical shocks with cattle prods; cigarette burns; sitting on hot grills; near-drownings; mock executions; and an electric chairs with a large metal mask to muffle screams while amplifying them for the victims.

    Evin is by most accounts the only jail in the world that uses its emergency, a laboratory, radiology and physiotherapy rooms for torture of prisoners.

    The best-known case of abuse was that of the Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi who was arrested after taking pictures of relatives outside Evin jail. She was so badly beaten that she died of her injuries in hospital.

    Reply
  9. sb

    February 27, 2009 10:15 pm

    No matter what these misguided clerics do, they only expose their outrageous hypocrisy more and more effectively.

    Untold thousands across the world know better now, the extent of the regime’s unbridled cruelty, since these innocent prisoners have been charged for their peaceful beliefs.

    See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnLfm5ipngo

    Translation of the above song:

    Weeks elapsed
    And the dove laughs at the cage
    Months have gone
    And the dove laughs at the cage
    Years, even if for years
    This bondage remains
    Again and again
    This dove will assuredly
    Laugh at the cage

    An effusion has entered
    This prison
    From the Unseen Tabernacle
    It intoxicates this dove
    And at the cage
    It laughs!

    Reply
  10. Adam

    February 28, 2009 2:16 am

    What is the Ayatollah going to do when two million+ Bahais show up at the funeral of these seven Saints he plans on killing? I bet you, he hadn’t thought of that. Had he thought of the day after, he would have released them yesterday. No power on earth can stump out the lights of these seven Saints! It is way beyond that now.

    Reply
  11. Hr

    February 28, 2009 8:28 am

    I red that clergies of Iran are like a dark thick cloud covering the Sun of Truth and depriving not only people of Iran but the whole world of the remedies brought to humanity to heel the heart and body of mankind and create long-lasting peace, social justice and prosperity for all the people of the world. Also pass is an example and listen for future, we must learn so maybe we don’t make same mistakes in future. Studying the history of past religions, including Islam, shows that when they appeared in the world at the beginning they were subject to persecution and harsh cruelty by people who held the political power of that time and in a hope to distinguish the fire of Truth and stop the eminent regeneration required. That is true from Abraham to Bahaullah. Now, look at the power of those religions today, how many people today relate themselves to those great souls and what happened to those people, who opposed with all their limited power, the Sun of Truth. This is so much true that the same charactered people, having limited political power today, while they relate themselves to those pure souls, do and say anything to hold to their worldly positions. In their heart they know of the lie and deceive they are posturing, we know that too. No mater what game they play the need for regeneration is eminent. The New World is coming and its Orders will wash them away.

    Reply
  12. Hr

    February 28, 2009 8:31 am

    I red that clergies of Iran are like a dark thick cloud covering the Sun of Truth and depriving not only Iran but the whole world of the remedies brought to humanity to heel the heart and body of mankind and create long-lasting peace, social justice and prosperity for all the people of the world. Also pass is an example and listen for future, we must learn so maybe we don’t make same mistakes in future. Studying the history of past religions, including Islam, shows that when they appeared in the world at the beginning they were subject to persecution and harsh cruelty by people who hold the political power of that time and in a hope to distinguish the fire of Truth and stop the eminent regeneration required. That is true from Abraham to Bahaullah. Now, look at the power of those religions today, how many people today relate themselves to those great souls and what happened to those people, who opposed with all their limited power, the Sun of Truth. This is so much true that the same charactered people, having limited political power today, while they relate themselves to those pure souls do and say anything to hold to their worldly positions. In their heart they know of the lie and deceive they are posturing, we know that too. No mater what game they play the need for regeneration is eminent. The New World is coming and its Orders will wash them away.

    Reply
  13. Omar Khan

    March 1, 2009 1:11 am

    Frenchie,
    I’m new to this site too. I found it on google news after hearing so much about how Mollahs are persecuting your Bahai Iranians. Your English is better than mine. Don’t you let that stop you from writing. Since these are not English term papers, I would not worry so much. Internet is for sharing. Have you seen your Iranian.com website? I found that to be interestig too and found it from visiting this site. Isn’t it amazing what Internet has done. No boundaries and no walls and no passports or visas. Don’t have to write perfect English either. You can travel every where and learn new things. Of course I can’t say that about your country, Iran. I hear Farsi is the 4th language on the Internet, but your Mollahs block your peoples’ highway to knowledge and force them to go into streets and burn effigies of Hazrate Omar and they say they want to protect the Sunni Umma from Jews. You go figure that.

    Reply
  14. Natalia

    March 1, 2009 2:03 am

    When The Bab was one alone, Mollahs could not stop Him. When Mollahs imprisoned Him, they couldn’t stop Him. When Bab’s followers grew to tens of thousands, Mollahs couldn’t stop Him. When Mollahs slaughtered Bab’s followers, they couldn’t stop Him. When Mollahs executed The Bab, they could not stop Him and He foretold of the coming of Baha’u’llah. When Baha’u’llah was alone, Mollahs couldn’t stop Him. When Mollahs imprisoned Baha’u’llah, they couldn’t stop Him. When Mollahs exiled Him, they couldn’t stop Him. When Mollahs slaughtered thausands of Baha’u’llah’s followers they could not stop Him. Now that Baha’u’llah lives in the hearts of millions of His followers from every religion, nationality, race and color around the world, Mollahs have gone back to step one and imprison and kill Baha’is in Iran again to stop Him. One would assume that after 160 years of persecuting and killing Baha’is, Mollahs would wise up!

    Reply

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