Iranian authorities have added new charges against 7 Baha'i leaders detained since 2008, under which they could be executed if convicted, and have arrested at least 12 more members of the religious minority, a statement released by the community has said.
"Iran and the world are again confronted by the specter of Bahá'ís being executed, this time on charges trumped up in the context of current widespread political unrest," said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for theInternational Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
The seven Baha'i leaders arrested in 2008 will stand trial on Tuesday. The charges against them have been expanded and now include those provisions that carry the death penalty. The Baha'is have been persecuted in Iran, since a long time but this persecution increased after the islamic revolution in 1979
The Bahá'ís have faced a government-sponsored, systematic campaign of religious persecution in their homeland. In its early stages, Bahá'ís were killed and at least 1,000 were imprisoned, solely because of their religious beliefs. In the early 1990s, the Iranian government shifted its focus to social, economic and cultural restrictions aimed at blocking the development of Iran's Bahá'í community.
The Bahá'í are Iran's largest religious minority. A vigorous campaign in the state-run news media to vilify and defame Bahá'ís has been launched by the government. Since 2005, Newspapers run more than 200 false or misleading articles about Bahá'í teachings, history and activities - an effort that has been echoed on television and radio, the statement said.
The campaign said that Bahá'í children were harassed and abused by teachers in schools throughout Iran, with the clear aim of forcing them to give up their faith. The Bahá'í community are denied the right to practice their faith freely, guaranteed under international human rights instruments such as the International Bill of Human Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.
