Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie has welcomed a reply from Ivan Lewis, Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth office, that the UK Government is ‘extremely concerned’ at the plight of religious prisoners in jails in Iran.
The MP wrote to the Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs office and to the Iranian Embassy last month raising the plight of adherents of the Bahai faith in Iran who have been persecuted for their beliefs.

Seven leaders of the Iranian Baha’i community have been charged with ‘spying for Israel’, ‘insulting religious sanctities’ and ‘propaganda against the Islamic Republic’, charges which could carry the death penalty.’

The Minister has informed Stewart Hosie that he has genuine concerns that the group will not receive a fair trial and has strongly supported EU representations to Iran to release the leaders and allow independent observation of the judicial proceedings.

The prisoners have been detained for a year and do not yet have a date for their trial nor any access to lawyers.

The UN adopted a resolution on Iran’s human rights situation in December 2008 for the sixth successive year, which sent a message of international concern to the Iranian authorities.
The Dundee MP is a member of the all-party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahai’s group and met with members of the Dundee Bahai community last month.
Stewart Hosie said: “Many people are rightly extremely concerned about the human rights abuses in Iran and their imprisonment and execution of members of non-Muslim religious faiths.
“The seven Bahai leaders have been denied legal representation and are being kept in intolerable conditions.
“I am glad to have the assurance of the Minister that the UK Government remains committed to raising concern over the treatment of the Baha’is and urging the Iranian regime to take its international human rights obligations seriously and to uphold the fundamental rights of its citizens, including the right of freedom of religion and belief.”