Update on the Jailed Baha'i Leaders in Iran

The Baha'i World News Service (BWNS) has just announced that the seven Baha'i leaders held in Iran were able to make brief telephone contact with their families.

Additionally, the Baha'i International Community has just added a new page, named "Iran Update," to its BWNS website that will provide a continuous flow of information on the situation of the Baha'is of Iran. This web-page, "updated regularly, is provided as a service to news media and others desiring details of the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. All information has been verified by the Baha'i International Community."

This much-needed service (Iran Update) will be of great value in officially providing confirmed information--all in one place--to the news media at large, human rights activists, bloggers, government agencies, concerned citizens and any other individuals or organizations interested in following, or acting on, this important human rights situation.

Below is a re-publication of the original announcement, regarding the jailed Baha'is, which can be found on the BWNS website at this link:

Seven jailed Iranian Baha’is make brief contact with families
19 June 2008

NEW YORK — Seven prominent Baha’is imprisoned in Iran have each been allowed a brief phone call to their families, the Baha’i International Community has learned.

The calls were the first contact with the jailed Baha’is since six of them were arrested on 14 May in pre-dawn raids at their homes in Tehran. The seventh was arrested in March in the city of Mashhad.

The Baha’i International Community has learned that on 3 June, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet and Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi were permitted to make short phone calls to their families. Mrs. Sabet had been detained in Mashhad on 5 March but on 26 May was transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran, where it is believed the others are also being held.

Later it was confirmed that Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm also have made brief phone calls to their families.

No charges have been filed against any of the seven, who comprise the entire membership of a coordinating committee that saw to the minimal needs of the 300,000-member Baha’i community of Iran.

In 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran were taken away and presumed killed as they were never heard from again. A year later, after the Assembly had been reconstituted, eight of the nine members were arrested and killed.

Besides the seven committee members imprisoned in Tehran, about 15 other Baha’is are currently detained in Iran, some incommunicado and most with no formal charges.