On 4 March 2009, the Baha’i International Community issued an open letter to Iran's prosecutor general outlining the tragic history of the persecution of Baha’is in Iran. The letter explained their innocence in the face of accusations made by the government, and asking for fairness in any upcoming trial of the seven Iranian Baha’i leaders then being held in Evin prison.
The letter came after a series of statements in the Iranian news media from the prosecutor general, Ayatollah Najafabadi, leveling charges at the Baha’is and stating that the arrangements that tended to the spiritual and social affairs of the Baha’i community of Iran were illegal.
The seven members of the “Friends in Iran” – the group that had been coordinating the affairs of the Baha’is at the national level and who had, at that point, been in prison for some 10 months – responded to the declaration from their prison cell. They stated that if the arrangements for administering the affairs of the Baha’i community were no longer acceptable to the government, to bring them to a close would not present a major obstacle. They said this was now being done, to further demonstrate the goodwill that the Baha’is have consistently shown to the government for the past 30 years.
The open letter, issued by the Baha’i International Community, warned that the government's continued oppression of Baha’is would ultimately have a wide impact on Iranian society as a whole.
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