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Seven Baha’is get 20-year terms in Iran: spokesmen

10 August 2010 01:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. An Iranian court has sentenced seven leaders of the Bahai faith to 20 years in prison after charging them with espionage and engaging in propaganda against Islam, two Bahai activists said Monday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Iranian media reported in January this year that the seven arrested in 2008 had gone on trial on charges of spying and collaborating with Israel, an enemy of the Islamic Republic.
The activists told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, that lawyers for the five men and two women held in a Tehran prison for more than two years, had been informed of the sentences, though no details of the verdict were made public.
"The lawyers have been told, but there has been no formal announcement," said an activist at a Bahai center outside Iran.
He said all seven had categorically denied the charges, that their trial had been held in six separation sessions, and that they may seek to file an appeal.
The Bahai faith was founded in Iran in the 19th century and activists say more than 300,000 adherents live in Iran today. Iran’s Shi’ite government considers the faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.
Exiled Bahai leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Iranian government denies it has detained or executed people for their religion.
Bahai officials said their institutions in Iran were disbanded in 1983, and the seven jailed leaders had formed an ad-hoc group that oversaw such rituals, marriages and funerals, with Iranian government knowledge.
Bani Dugal, representative of the Bahai International Community to the United Nations, issued a statement Sunday calling the sentences "a deeply shocking outcome to the case of these innocent and harmless people."
Iran and Israel are sworn enemies, with tensions running high between them over Iran’s nuclear program.
Tehran is also a key backer of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Hamas Islamists in Gaza who stage attacks against Israel along its northern and southern borders.