Death sentences for the Bahai

The New York Times, December 31, 1993

A few days before Christmas, jarring news made its way from Iran: Three adherents of the Bahai faith have been condemned to death solely because of their beliefs. The judicial judgment against two defendants living in Karaj, near Tehran, accus es them of a new kind of crime -- transmitting information that they were on trial for their lives to the United Nations and to Bahai groups outside Iran. Those facing execution squads are thus expected to collaborate in a cover-up of their own fate. They are meant to meet their deaths with the silence of lambs being led to slaughter. No criminal acts are cited in the 700-word verdict reaffirming the death sentence. The two Bahais are simply accused of holding feasts, owning books and being "unprivileged infidels at war with the Muslim nation."