Please find below the ECAJ’s media release regarding the per­se­cu­tion of Baha’i Community in North Yemen. To download this media release in PDF format, click here.

MEDIA STATEMENT

15 JANUARY 2018

Persecution of Baha’i Community in North Yemen

The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ) joins with the Baha’i community in calling upon the Iran-aligned Houthi author­it­ies in North Yemen to quash the death sentence against 52-year-old Yemeni prisoner of con­science Hamid Kamal Muhammad bin Haydara, to release him from prison imme­di­ately and uncon­di­tion­ally, and to cease their per­se­cu­tion of other members of the Baha’i community in the areas under their control.
Hamid Haydara, has been detained in Sana’a since December 2013. Six other members of the Baha’i community in Yemen are currently imprisoned. Mr Haydara’s alleged crime has been to contact senior admin­is­trat­ors of his own religious community, because they happen to be located in Haifa in Israel, which has been the centre of the Baha’i faith since it was founded in the nine­teenth century, long before the estab­lish­ment of the State of Israel.
“We have been appalled at the trumped up nature of the charges against Hamid bin Haydara, the barbarity of the public execution to which he has been sentenced and the treatment meted out to him according to reports by human rights organ­isa­tions”, said Anton Block, President of the ECAJ.
“It appears that he has been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in custody, lack of access to adequate medical treatment and lack of access to legal counsel during his inter­rog­a­tions by the author­it­ies. He was even prevented from attending his own sen­ten­cing.”
“It is bizarre that the judge who has sentenced Mr Haydara to death by public execution told the pro­sec­u­tion several times during the trial that no sub­stant­ive evidence had been presented against him”, Mr Block said.
The court also ordered con­fis­ca­tion of Mr Haydara’s assets and the dis­sol­u­tion of elected Baha’i councils that look after the spiritual and material needs of the community. This mirrors acts of per­se­cu­tion against the Baha’i in Iran during the 1980s.
“This case is a shocking example of the extremes to which the Iranian regime and its proxies are prepared to go to carry out the religious per­se­cu­tion of the peaceful and apolit­ic­al Baha’i community,” Mr Block concluded. “We are reminded of our oblig­a­tion to seek the freedom of the innocent, “to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-house” (Isaiah 42:7).

Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904
e: [email protected] | www.ecaj.org.au