OFFICE OF HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS "DEEPLY DISTURBED" OVER EXECUTION OF IRANIAN CITIZEN

HR/98/51
24 July 1998


The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was deeply disturbed to learn of the execution on 21 July of Ruhu'llah Rawhani, an Iranian citizen hanged apparently for the exercise of his Baha'i faith.

The Office of the High Commissioner is gravely concerned about the reported conditions that led to the execution, particularly the seeming absence of due process. Mr. Rawhani was hanged, reportedly, after ten months of incommunicado imprisonment on charges of converting a Muslim woman to the Baha'i faith.

The Office of the High Commissioner is also deeply concerned by reports that three other Baha'is - Ata'ullah Hamid Nasirizadih, Sirus Dhabih-Muqaddam and Hidayat-Kashifi - have been sentenced in secret to death and are facing imminent execution. Information received indicates that a number of other Baha'is are currently imprisoned or awaiting trial under similar circumstances.

The Office of the High Commissioner urgently appeals to the Government of Iran to take all necessary measures to ensure that the right to life of these persons is respected, as their only offence appears to have been to belong to a particular religious faith.