Seven members of the Baha'i faith will stand trial in Iran on charges of "spying for Israel" and "desecrating Islam and campaigning against the Islamic Republic," the official ISNA agency reported Feb. 11. Last May, Israel's Haaretz [2] reported that Iran had detained six Baha'is on similar charges, but it was not clear whether the seven were the same leaders arrested in 2008. The European Union reiterated its deep concern over "the ongoing systematic discrimination and the persecution of the Iranian Baha'is." (Haartez [3], Feb. 11)
Baha'is were also arrested in sweeps of human rights activists [4] earlier this year, and Iran has seen a spate of espionage charges [5] against opposition figures in recent weeks.
See our last post on Iran [6].
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