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
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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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