The ongoing threat of execution

ince 1978, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been killed or executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Most were killed in the early 1980s, before international attention was focused on the crisis. A full list of those killed or executed can be found in Appendix I.

Although in recent years the government has sharply reduced its killing rate, it continued occasionally to execute Bahá’ís through the late 1990s. The most recent execution of a Bahá’í in Iran was in July 1998, when Ruhu’llah Rawhani was hanged in Mashhad.

Nevertheless, the threat of execution or killing still looms large for Iranian Bahá’ís, who remain without recognized legal status in Iran.

A number of Bahá’ís in recent years have been held in prison under the sentence of death, for example. Fortunately, international pressure has helped to convince Iranian authorities to commute or reduce those sentences.

One such case surrounded the sentence given to Musa Talibi, a Bahá’í from Vilashahr, who was arrested in 1994 and then sentenced to death in 1996 on the charge of apostasy. He was 63 years old at the time.

After appeal and initial confirmation of this sentence by the Supreme Court, the Bahá’í International Community was unofficially informed in 1999 that his death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment. Finally, in May 2003, after being visited by members of the UN Working Group on Arbitary Detention that February, Mr. Talibi was freed.

Likewise, two men, Bihnam Mithaqi and Kayvan Khalajabadi were released in February 2004, after having been imprisoned since 1989 on charges arising solely from membership in the Bahá’í Faith. They had been sentenced to death in 1991, and their sentences reconfirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court in 1996. In 2001, however, the chief of the judicial branch reduced their sentences to 15 years in prison for “association with Bahá’í institutions.” Both men were released on 7 February 2004, having served out their full sentences.

Ruhu’llah Rawhani, who was hanged in Mashad by government authorities on 21 July 1998. High Resolution Image >

The stories behind the two most recent executions — in 1998 and 1992 — reflect the arbitrary and terrifying nature of the threat.

Ruhu’llah Rawhani, a father of four and an active Bahá’í during his entire life, suffered through the indignities of religious persecution throughout much of Iran’s recent history. In 1984, Mr. Rawhani was arrested and imprisoned for more than a year, during which he was tortured, according to relatives. He was subsequently released but then was arrested a second time in the mid-1990s. The charge was apparently related to his volunteer work at purely religious activities, such as prayer meetings and children’s classes. He was released after 24 hours.

In September 1997, however, the medical supplies salesman was arrested for a third time, and placed in solitary confinement in Mashhad. Mr. Rawhani had been accused of “converting” a woman from Islam to the Bahá’í Faith. The woman, however, denied that she had converted; she explained that her mother was a Bahá’í and that she herself had been raised as a Bahá’í. She was not arrested.

Mr. Rawhani was kept incommunicado for the duration of his imprisonment and no information is available regarding his treatment in prison. There is no evidence that he was accorded any legal process, and no sentence was announced. It appears certain that he was not allowed access to a lawyer.

Mr. Bahman Samandari, who was summarily executed by the Government in March 1992. High Resolution Image >

On 20 July 1998, someone from the Iranian Intelligence Department telephoned a Bahá’í in Mashhad stating that Mr. Rawhani was to be executed the next day. Initially, this statement was not believed, as Bahá’ís in Iran have received similar calls previously in apparent attempts to frighten them.

The next morning, the family was called, told to come to the prison to collect Mr. Rawhani’s body, and given an hour to bury him. Rope marks on his neck indicated he had been hanged.

Bahman Samandari, a Tehran businessman, was executed in March 1992. Mr. Samandari, who ran a well-known Tehran travel agency, was summoned without explanation to Evin prison by authorities on 17 March 1992. The next day, he was secretly executed.

No official charge or verdict was announced, and inquiries by family members produced vague indications that Mr. Samandari’s execution was related to his previous detention more than four years before, when he and four other Bahá’ís were arrested for having a prayer -meeting in his home.

In addition to these government-sponsored executions, Bahá’ís have also recently been killed under circumstances that indicate continuing disregard for Bahá’ís as individuals who deserve protection under the law.