Free Republic

In the statement offering condolences to Mr. Mahrami's family, State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said he had received death threats in prison and been forced to perform arduous physical labor. Mr. Ereli said the Mahrami case, unfortunately, is not unique and that the government of Iran is engaged in the systematic oppression of its citizens including the persecution of individuals for religious and political reasons.

The United States Friday condemned what it said was the persecution of an Iranian of the Baha'i faith who died in prison last week. The State Department said members of minority religions and political dissidents in Iran are systematically oppressed. In a written statement, the State Department condemned the persecution and imprisonment of Iranian Baha'i adherent Zabihullah Mahrami, who died in prison in the central Iranian city of Yazd a week ago of unknown causes. Mr. Mahrami, 59, a civil servant in the government of the late Shah of Iran, had been sentenced to death by an Iranian revolutionary court...

A Baha'i who was wrongly jailed in Iran for 10 years died in his prison cell of unknown causes on Thursday, 15 December 2005, the Baha'i International Community has learned. Mr. Dhabihu'llah Mahrami, 59, was held in a government prison in Yazd under harsh physical conditions at the time of his death. His death comes amidst ominous signs that a new wave of persecutions of Baha'is has begun. This year so far, at least 59 Baha'is have been arrested, detained or imprisoned, a figure up sharply from the last several years. Arrested in 1995 in Yazd on charges of apostasy,...