10 women Baha’is hanged (Kuwait Times – 6/20/1983)

          
          LONDON, Sun. — Sixteen
          Baha'i sect members con-
          demned to death in Iran
          on espionage charges have
          been executed in secret, a
          sect official said .here to-
          day.
          They included 10 women
          who were hanged last ni-
          ght in prison at Shiraz,
          Baha'i spokeswoman Mary
          Hardy told Reuters. She
          added that six men were
          executed the previous ni-
          ght.
          The 16 belonged to a
          group of 22 Baha'is for
          whom President Reagan
          last month made a plea for
          clemency alter learning
          that they had been sen-
          tenced to death.
          Hardy said more than
          130 Baha'is, members of a
          19th Century offshoot of
          Shi'ite sect regarded by
          all Muslims as heretical,
          had been killed since the
          Iranian revolution began.
          “Our information has
          come from inside Iran,”
          said Hardy, who is nation-
          al secretary of the British
          Baha'is.”
          She said the 16 had “re-
          fused to recant their
          Baha'i faith despite being
          beaten and tortured.”
          Iranian leader Ayatol-
          lah Khomeini was quoted
          as saying Baha'ism was
          not a religion but a Was-
          ington - backed political
          party.
          The movement is esti-
          mated to have 300,000 fol-
          lowers in Iran and has an
          international headquarters
          in Israel.
          Baha'is believe the foun-
          der of their religion ‘Al
          Baha' was “God.”
          Hardy's account conflic-
          ted with an official
          statement issued by the
          Baha'is spokesman in New
          York, Gerald Knight, who
          said the executions took
          place last Thursday.
          Knight was talking to
          reporters at the Baha'iS
          International CommUnitY
          OrganisatiOfl in New York
          yesterday.
          At least 4,000 executionS
          of anti_government acti-
          vists, drug dealers, prosti-
          tutes and others have oc-
          curred in Iran since the
          revolution. — Reuter, AP
          a, j 3
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          Z tte'1 _ i — _ 1.I _
          gs last November. Lebanese Civil Defence rescuers prepare- to carry the
          mutilated body of a man killed while driving a booby-
          — Reuter trapped car. —AP lasenhOto
          10 women Baha'is hanged
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