28 January 1997
To selected National Spiritual Assemblies
The Universal House of Justice has received the disturbing news from Iran that Mr. Dhabíhu’lláh Mahramí and Mr. Músá Tálibí, both of whom had been condemned to death for apostasy and had appealed against their unjust sentences, have been notified that the Supreme Court of Iran has confirmed the death sentences imposed by the Revolutionary Courts.
This news was received by relatives of Mr. Mahramí and Mr. Tálibí during prison visits. It has been the practice of the Iranian authorities to convey verdicts orally to prisoners, and not to give them a copy of the actual text of the court decision.
A worrying development is that Mr. Tálibí, until now in prison in Isfahán, has been transferred to the notorious Evin Prison in Tihrán. Similarly, Mr. Mahramí has been moved within Yazd, from the prison of the Revolutionary Court to that of the Security and Information Department. . . .
Our letters of 2 April 1996 and 27 September 1996 give details of the cases of Mr. Mahramí and Mr. Tálibí respectively, and the update on the situation in Iran sent by the United Nations Office of the Bahá’í International Community earlier this month provides further information. We have recently received the following personal details from the Friends in Iran. Mr. Mahramí is married and has four children, three daughters, two married and one unmarried, and one unmarried son; Mr. Tálibí is in his mid sixties, is married and has a family of adult children, two of whom live in Canada, one in Australia and the others in the family’s home town of Víláshahr, Ifahán.
There are two more Bahá’ís presently under the death sentence in Iran because of their beliefs, Mr. Kayván Khalajábádí and Mr. Bihnám Mítháqí, who were first arrested in 1989, and have been kept in prison in suspense since that time.
Department of the Secretariat
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001)
