Backgrounder
The
Atlanta Bahá'í Resource for the Media
Background
information on recent events in the ongoing persecution of the
Bahá'ís in Iran
Mr. Ruhollah Rowhani Executed on July 21, 1998
- Mr. Rowhani, 52, had been imprisoned in solitary
confinement in Mashhad, Iran since September 1997. He
had been charged with converting a Muslim to the
Bahá'í Faith. The woman whom he was accused of
converting refuted the accusation stating that she
had been raised as a Bahá’í. She has not been
arrested.
- After his execution another prisoner told a visiting
relative that Mr. Rowhani had been sentenced to
death. There is no evidence that he was accorded any
legal process or access to a lawyer.
- Mr. Rowhani was a person of a deeply gentle and
innocent character. He was the father of four
children, sons aged 24 and 17, and daughters aged 22
and 9.
- He made a modest living as a salesman of medical
supplies and health products, an occupation he had
engaged in for about twenty years.
- Approximately twelve years ago he was sentenced to a
period of two years' imprisonment because of his
membership in the Bahá'í Faith and to an additional
one year's internal exile in the village of
Najafabad, which he was not permitted to leave and
where he had to report daily to the police. After
this period he returned to Mashhad to continue his
profession.
- Just prior to his arrest in September 1997 the family
had decided to move to Isfahan, as Mr. Rowhani had
found it increasingly difficult to make a
satisfactory living in Mashhad. On the day of the
family's intended departure, revolutionary guards
came to their home and arrested him.
- Since September 1997 the family had seen Mr. Rowhani
only once -- about a month after he was arrested --
after which the authorities refused to give them any
information about his situation or even to tell them
whether he was alive or dead.
- On July 20 his family was informed that they could
see him for one hour. It is understood that this
meeting was the first time that Mr. Rowhani had
breathed fresh air in three months.
- On the night before the execution Bahá’ís
learned from the Iranian Intelligence Office that Mr.
Rowhani was to be executed the following day. The
statement was not taken seriously because authorities
have often made similar erroneous threats to harass
the Bahá’ís and so the family was not
informed.
- The next day the family was called to the prison to
collect his body. They were given only one hour to
bury Mr. Rowhani, despite their appeal for more time
to enable other relatives to attend the funeral. From
the marks of a rope on his neck, it appeared that Mr.
Rowhani had been executed by hanging.
- Mr. Rowhani is the first Bahá’í to be executed
since March 1992. Fifteen Bahá’ís are
currently being held in Iranian prisons on charges
stemming from their adherence to the Bahá’í
Faith. Seven of these prisoners are on death row, two
on charges of apostasy and two on charges of
"Zionist Bahá’í activities."
Three Bahá'ís Under Threat Of Imminent Execution
- Three other Bahá'í prisoners in Mashhad have been
sentenced to death. The death sentences have not been
made public but were conveyed orally to the
prisoners, one of whom told a relative about the
sentences during a prisoner visit. The number of
Bahá'ís on death row is now seven; fifteen
Bahá'ís total are in Iranian prisons.
- The three prisoners on death row in
Mashhad, Mr. Ataullah Hamid Nasirizadeh, Mr. Sirus
Zabihi-Moghaddam and Mr. Hedayat Kashefi Najafabadi,
were arrested in October or November 1997 for holding
"family life" meetings.
- Mr. Nasirizadeh told visiting
relatives of the death sentences. He explained that
existing regulations require that all death sentences
meted out by courts in any part of Iran had to be
confirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court in Tehran
before executions could take place.
- Mr. Nasirizadeh said that when his
sentence and that of two other Bahá'ís had been
sent to Tehran for confirmation, the Supreme Court
had detected a technical error in the proceedings in
their cases and had referred the cases back to the
Mashhad judiciary for a retrial. The technical
irregularity was that three of the Bahá'ís had had
no defense counsel during their trial.
- The three Bahá'ís have been retried.
They were not allowed to choose and hire their own
lawyers to defend them but were forced to accept
someone appointed by the court to act on their
behalf. Apparently the court-appointed lawyer made
statements to the court which were contrary to the
facts and to the wishes of the Bahá'ís on trial. A
heated argument between the lawyer and the Bahá'ís
ensued during the course of the retrial.
- Bahá'ís fear that the appointment by
the court of the lawyer to represent the prisoners
was made simply to meet the technical requirement of
the Supreme Court and that the decision against the
Bahá'ís had already been made by the judiciary of
Mashhad.
- Families of the three men on death row
have recently been granted permission to visit the
prisoners every other Tuesday. The most recent visit
was July 28. Because Iranian authorities brought the
three prisoners to a memorial service for Mr.
Rowhani, there has been fear the prisoners might
suffer the same fate as Mr. Rowhani.
US Government Responses
- On July 23 the White House and the State Department
issued strong statements condemning the Iranian
government for the execution of Mr. Rowhani;
President Clinton offered his condolences to the
Rowhani family.
- On July 29 Assistant Secretary of State for Near
Eastern Affairs, Martin S. Indyk, condemned the
execution of Mr. Rowhani and called for the safety of
other Bahá'í prisoners in testimony before the
House International Relations Committee.
- On July 30 Senator Sam Brownback (KS) submitted to
the Congressional Record a strong statement
condemning the execution of Mr. Rowhani.
- Voice of America: On July 24 US government
officials were interviewed on program broadcast to
Iran; on July 28 and July 30, the English-language
editorial broadcast worldwide was about the
persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran; Worldnet
television program, "On the Line,"
broadcast August 1-2 worldwide a program on the
persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran. By law Voice
of America may not broadcast its radio or television
programs in the US.
Iranian Government Responses
- On July 26 Judge Gholam-Hossein Rahbar-Pour, head of
the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, was quoted
as saying, "Essentially, none of the branches of
the court has issued a death sentence for a person
named Ruhollah Rowhani, affiliated to the Bahá'í
sect. The report of his execution is a total
lie."
- An Iranian television report was quoted as saying,
"The UN committee on human rights, influenced by
this propaganda and in line with it, referred to the
execution of this imaginary individual and protested
the action on Friday, announcing that it was very
concerned about the human rights situation in
Iran."
- On July 29 contrary to Judge Rahbar-Pour’s
statement that Mr. Rowhani had not been executed, a
spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Australia, Mr.
Zaboli Mohammed, said that Mr. Rowhani had been
executed after being convicted three times of acting
against the national interest of the Government.
Other government Responses
- Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy,
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander
Downer, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights have issued strong public statements
condemning the execution.
1998 Copyright © All Rights
Reserved.
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Information Center
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Phone: (404) 847-9099
Fax: (404) 843-8895
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