By Joseph Picard: Subscribe to Joseph's RSS feed
August 13, 2010 3:56 PM EDT
In a foul, subterranean Teheran dungeon, known as the "Black Pit", in 1852, an imprisoned Iranian nobleman, his feet in stocks and a heavy chain around his neck, had a divine vision.
The man was Bahá'u'lláh, and his vision developed into the Baha'i religion, which teaches that humanity is one race meant to be unified into a single global society. There are approximately 6 million Baha'is worldwide and some 350,000 in Iran.
Seven of those Iranian Baha'is, the religion's leaders, have spent the last two years in the contemporary equivalent of the "Black Pit," Teheran's Evin Prison. Their crime, apparently, was being Baha'is.
This week the Baha'i leaders were sentenced to 20 years each and transported to another prison. They were arrested in 2008 and held for a year without being charged. When they were charged, it was for spreading corruption and being disrespectful to Allah. Their supporters found them lawyers, but the lawyers were never given access to the prisoners. Their trial, this June, was closed.
"Their trial was a sham," said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community at the United Nations. "Their entire ordeal is a litmus test on how Iran honors its commitment to the civil rights of its own people."
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The sentencing of the seven Baha'is has drawn widespread condemnation of Iran, a signatory to the UN's International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights.
"Freedom of religion is the birthright of people of all faiths and beliefs in all places," said U.S. Secretary of State Hilliary Clinton. "The United States is committed to defending religious freedom around the world, and we have not forgotten the Baha'i community in Iran."
Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, issued a statement:
."The verdict appears to be based on the defendants belonging to a religious minority and the judicial process was seriously flawed, respecting neither Iran's international commitments under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights nor its national legislation regarding fair trial rights," Ashton said.
She added that the EU believes "freedom of thought, conscience and religion are fundamental rights."
The United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary William Hague called the sentencing "shocking" and "unacceptable."
"The Iranian judiciary has repeatedly failed to allay international and domestic concerns that these seven men and women are guilty of anything other than practicing their faith," Hague said.
"It is clear," he continued, "that from arrest to sentencing, the Iranian authorities did not follow even their own due process, let alone the international standards to which Iran is committed. The accused were denied proper access to lawyers, and there is evidence that the trial was neither fair nor transparent."
The governments of the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France and Germany, as well as several human rights organizations, have also condemned Iran's actions, and have joined the U.S., the EU and the UK in calling for the prisoners' release.
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