| ←340 | Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1986-2001 Update on Bahá’í Prisoners in Iran |
342→ |
| 18 AUGUST 2000 |
To selected National Spiritual Assemblies
341.1 The following news has just been received from the Friends in Iran.
341.2 1. Prisoners under sentence of death in Mashhad. The Supreme Court, having examined the cases of Mr. Sirus Dhabihi Muqaddam and Mr. Hedayat Kashefi-Najafabadi, has ruled that the verdicts against them are unsound, and has referred them to another court. The families of the prisoners are reported to have noticed a great change in the attitude of the authorities towards both themselves and the Bahá’í prisoners, and hopes are high that their cases may be dismissed. It is not known whether this information also applies to Mr. Ata’ullah Hamid Nasirzadih, who is serving a ten-year prison sentence, having been arrested with the other two friends in November 1997.
341.3 2. Restoration of properties. Six believers, understood to be among those briefly detained during the raids on BIHE personnel in the fall of 1998, had to surrender the title deeds of their properties for possible confiscation. They are the only Bahá’ís known to have been treated in this way at the time. The Iranian courts found no evidence to support the accusations that were brought against these friends—espionage and working against the Islamic Republic—and have offered their confiscated properties back to them, ordering that the deeds be returned to their owners, as the charges against them had not been substantiated. . . .
- DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARIAT
