In 1692 in Salem Village, Mass., dozens of people were put on trial for their lives, accused of the heinous crime of witchcraft and being in league with Satan. Some 20 people were hanged, convicted by a panel of judges who also served as the prosecutors.
The evidence used against them was called “spectral evidence,” defined as being visible only to the small group of young girls who leveled the accusations against the indicted. Not until Puritan theologian Cotton Mather stepped in to question the use of this “spectral” evidence was the madness stopped.
Today, in Shiraz, Iran, 13 Jews are on trial for their lives, accused of spying for Israel, the Iranian clerics’ “Little Satan.” There is an air of a witch hunt in these proceedings. In the Revolutionary Courts of Iran, the judge and prosecutor are the same person.
Defense attorney Esmail Naseri told the Associated Press, “The judge accuses the defendants, then proceeds to defend the accusation. On top of that, he also wants to pass sentence. How can this be?”
As in Salem, a kind of spectral evidence is the principal proof used against the Jewish defendants in Iran. In the same AP story, Naseri described the scene in the courtroom: “The judge makes the accusation of espionage, but when we ask for evidence he remains silent.”
The accused are not allowed to examine the charges against them, thus rendering the evidence visible only to their accusers. Indeed, the exact charges and evidence against the 13 still have not been formally announced.
Also, as in Salem, court confessions of the accused appear to be the goal of the presiding “judges.” Thus far, three of the accused Jews have confessed, under what can only be described as coercive circumstances in a legal system for which due process has no meaning.
Furthermore, the proceedings are closed despite previous assurances to the contrary to Western governments. Nobody is allowed into the courtroom, not family members, members of the Jewish community, media, representatives of foreign governments or human rights activists who were in Shiraz to observe the trial.
The trials of the Jews are taking place against the backdrop of a power struggle between reformers and hardliners, and serve as a litmus test for the reformers. Recently Iran held elections, with the reformers winning control of the parliament in the first round of voting. The reformers represent the will of the frustrated majority of Iranians who want more freedom of thought and expression. The reformer President Mohammad Khatami seeks to end Iran’s isolation, even renewing ties with the United States.
The hardliner guardians of the purity of the Iranian Islamic revolution — the “puritans” if you will — fear freedom. They see it as a threat to their interpretation of Islam and to their power. They don’t want a rapprochement with the West, particularly the United States, the “Great Satan.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian judiciary, which is controlled by hardliners, closed 16 pro-democracy newspapers and arrested six reformer activists in the past two weeks. It is this judiciary that is trying the 13 Jews.
There is little hope for fair and impartial justice from Iranian courts as the hardline-controlled judiciary is a full participant in the crackdown on the reformers. For instance, Tehran’s mayor and architect of Khatami’s successful 1997 presidential campaign was jailed in May 1999 on corruption charges.
The best-known reformer in the last parliament, Abdullah Nuri, is serving time in prison for printing articles critical of the hardliners. And Khatami’s own brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, a reformer editor and top vote-getter in the recent elections, has been brought up on charges of libel at the behest of the hardliners.
This does not bode well for the 13, and it appears the verdict is already in. In September, Ghulamhusayn Rahbarpur, head of Tehran’s revolutionary tribunal, said the charges against the detained Jews had been “proved.” On Jan. 12, Ali Yunesi, Iran’s minister of intelligence and security, said: “If they are condemned to hang, they will be hanged.” Just three years ago, two Jews were hanged by the same judiciary for supposedly spying for Israel.
The Iranian government, though controlled by the reformers, has let the world know that this trial is an “internal” Iranian matter. Yet, the same government is keenly mindful that the West has placed a great deal of importance on the freeing of the Jews. Khatami seeks a lifting of the sanctions on Iran and knows that if the hardliners win on this matter, it will set back his hopes.
Therefore, there is action we can take toward securing the release of our imprisoned brethren.
At this point letters need to be written to those countries and leaders with diplomatic and economic relations with Iran: the United Nations; the Vatican; member nations of the European Union, particularly Germany, France and Italy; and the Russian Federation and Japan.
We need to thank these governments for their support thus far. We need to say that the 13 Jews are innocent and should be released immediately and that they should be given full legal rights, including choice of legal representation. The right to choose legal representation is guaranteed under Iranian law and under international legal conventions to which Iran is a signatory. The trial should be fair and open to observers from the diplomatic community, non-government organizations, the Jewish community, the media and other interested parties.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Clinton administration also need to hear from the Jewish community that there can be no upgrading of U.S. relations with Iran unless the 13 Jews are freed unconditionally. Our Web site at www.jcrc.org is continuously updated and has all the addresses of the above governments and world leaders.
Witch hunts are never rational, whether in Puritan Salem, Stalinist Russia or today in revolutionary Iran. We can’t count on the emergence of an Iranian equivalent to Mather who could put a stop to this insanity. That is why we all must take action now to save our brethren from the hangman’s noose.