Iran said on Saturday that Bahais arrested in connection with recent anti-government protests would go on trial in the coming days, as a spokeswoman for the pacifist religion rejected charges they were holding arms in their homes.
"The Bahais' trial will be this week in a revolutionary court in Tehran," Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying.
He repeated comments he made on Friday that "they were arrested because they played a role in organising the Ashura protests and for having sent abroad pictures of the unrest."
He added that "they were not arrested because they are Bahais ... Arms and ammunition were seized in some of their homes."
But Diane Alai, the Bahai International Community?s United Nations representative in Geneva, said the charges against the 10 Bahais being held in Evin prison were entirely unfounded.
"Without doubt, these are baseless fabrications devised by the government to further create an atmosphere of prejudice and hatred against the Iranian Bahai community," Alai said in a statement.
"Bahais are ... committed to absolute non-violence, and any charge that there might have been weapons or ?live rounds? in their homes is simply and completely unbelievable," she added.
Followers of the Bahai faith, founded in Iran in 1863, are regarded as infidels and suffered persecution both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the last prophet sent by God, in direct conflict with Islam, the religion of the vast majority of Iranians, which says Mohammad was the last prophet.
In mid-2008, Iran arrested seven Bahais on charges of spying for arch-foe Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognise.
Alai said "we are particularly concerned by the fact that these accusations come just days before the scheduled trial of seven Bahai leaders, who have been locked up for nearly two years on equally unfounded charges."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June re-election triggered a wave of opposition protest amid charges that the vote was marred by massive fraud.
On December 27, eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters who staged fresh protests.
At least 300 of those arrested during the protests are still being held in Tehran, police say.
The Bahai statement 13 of its members were arrested on December 3 in early morning raids on their homes in Tehran.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
