The Institute for International Affairs Page

There is no greater mitzvah than Redemption of Captives
Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Matanot Ani’im, Chapter 8, Article 10

IRAN UPDATE 11 - April 14, 2000

Toronto, April 14, 2000 - The trial of the 13 Iranian Jewish captives, which began yesterday in the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz, was adjourned after 90 minutes amidst speculation and confusion. The defence team had requested the adjournment since they received details of the year-long interrogation only days ago and have had insufficient time to prepare their case. The new trial date will be May 1, 2000. The charges against the defendants have still not been made public, apart from allusions to espionage in some cases and the less grave charge of “threats to national security” in others.

The Canadian Embassy in Tehran had joined many other foreign missions in requesting observer status at the trial. Vicken Khoundakjian, head of its political desk, traveled to Shiraz yesterday to try and gain entry to the proceedings. B’nai Brith Canada, together with several other international human rights organizations, has also requested observer status.

Yesterday’s proceedings were closed to the media, the public and international observers from both government and non-governmental organizations, in spite of repeated assurances made earlier in the year by high-ranking Iranian officials that the trial would be open. The authorities now assert that cases involving national security are always tried in camera. Foreign observers described distressing scenes outside the courtroom with relatives of the defendants weeping as they strained in vain to catch glimpses of their loved ones, only to learn that they had been hustled through a rear entrance.

Some reports have suggested that the cases against the three defendants released recently on bail might be dropped within the next few days. Meanwhile, other accounts - as yet unconfirmed - have claimed that four of the defendants have “confessed their guilt” and pleaded for mercy. Human Rights Watch has called on the trial judge, Sadik Nourani, to rule as inadmissible “statements made by the defendants while they were held incommunicado or without the benefit of legal counsel”. One can only speculate as to what methods were used to gain these alleged confessions.

The trial judge reportedly visited the 10 defendants still under detention earlier this week to “wish them a Happy Passover”, a move that has been represented in the Iranian press as both public-spirited and humane. In terms of internationally accepted judicial practice, however, this type of pre-trial contact between the defendants and the judge would be considered highly irregular. This gesture certainly does nothing to mitigate the violations of the prisoners’ human rights throughout their lengthy detention.

The day of the trial, Iran News quoted Esmaeel Nasseri, spokesman for the defense attorneys, as saying: “the admission by the Jews of their guilt as reflected on their files along with other facts therein was evidence of their involvement in espionage”. It is outrageous that such statements appeared before the trial and judgement had taken place. Nasseri has since denied that that there have been any confessions.

Iran has always cited the arrests of eight Iranian Moslems implicated in the case as proof that the arrests of the 13 Jews had nothing to do with their religion. If this were so, it is hard to explain why the Jews are being tried completely separately from their supposed accomplices. It would seem an unlikely coincidence given the recent diatribe by senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati who saw a definite link between their religion and their alleged crime: “These people are spies …they are Jews and are… by nature enemies of Moslems.”

	The B'nai Brith Canada Institute for International Affairs has a mandate to protest the abuse of human rights throughout the world and advocate on behalf of worldwide Jewish communities in distress. The Institute has a special focus on pro-Israel advocacy and education.
Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Amos Sochaczevski National Chair	Ruth Klein National Director