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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Trying circumstances
By Azadeh MoaveniAfter security police rounded up his son, Ramin, in Tehran nearly 15 months ago, charged him with spying for Israel, and held him incommunicado for four months in a Shiraz jail, Rahmat Farzam was understandably sceptical that his son would receive a fair trial.
In the months that have passed since the young Farzam and 12 other members of Iran's Jewish community were arrested, Western governments and Jewish groups have claimed that establishment hard-liners invented the charges against the 13 in their campaign against the reformist camp. But this week, when a Shiraz Revolutionary Court finally began the proceedings, a gentler, if not entirely transparent, style of Iranian justice seemed to be in effect. Most of the suspects were represented by defence lawyers of their choosing, diplomats and a human rights monitor stood watch outside the courtroom and a lengthy news conference by the provincial chief justice followed the first day of the hearings.
The persistent international focus on the issue has not always been welcomed by the Iranian Jewish community, which fears that foreign pressure may inflame hard-liners and be used to justify harsh treatment of the accused. The trial, adjourned to 1 May, is not only about the fate of the 13 themselves, but will also reflect on the future of Iran's nearly 23,000 Jews who have lived in relative harmony with the majority Shi'a population for hundreds of years. Though Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi has said Iran will not execute spies in times of peace, observers have been quick to point out that death sentences would have dire consequences: the last remaining sizable Jewish population in the region may further dwindle, and President Mohamed Khatami may witness the evaporation of his delicate rapprochement with the West. Though Khatami has no direct control over the institutions handling the case -- the courts and the security apparatus -- a trial with any irregularities would make a mockery of his authority and the rule of law.
From the start, it seemed unlikely that the president's moderate touch would be felt in the case. Judicial authorities only admitted to having charged the 13 with espionage three months after their arrest, during which time all were denied access to family and legal counsel. Judge Sadeq Nourani, contrary to previous official assurances, has kept the proceedings of the trial closed to the public.
An Iranian Jewish youth group prays at a synagogue in Shiraz where a trial opened last week for 13 Jews accused of spying for Israel
(photo: AP)
Though Khatami himself has promised a fair trial, little is being said of the eight Muslims accused in the case and this worries the Jewish community. A Jewish representative to parliament for Shiraz, Manouchehr Eliyassi, met with the president to talk about the trial, and along with other community representatives, insisted to reporters the case was based on a "misunderstanding." The suspects themselves seem unthreatening -- shopkeepers, teachers, and traders -- people with ordinary lives. But analysts in Tehran caution that even though guilty verdicts would gladden hard-liners, the possibility that the accused were involved in espionage should not be ruled out.
This sudden shift toward the proper application of the law, suggest some reformers, may come at a price. By loosening up on the Jews through granting them their legal rights, the rationale proceeds, the hard-liners create a space to crack down on the reformist press. In the last week, a prominent reformist editor, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, received a two-and-a-half year prison sentence, and Mohammedreza Khatami, the president's brother and a recently elected member of parliament, has been charged with libel.
But as Elahe Sharifpour-Hicks, a researcher with the New York-based Human Rights Watch, noted in Shiraz this week, it still matters that the authorities seem to be well aware of the international community's concern. "This may work to help the detainees," she told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Even if some suspect that compassion by Iranian officials has more to do with the close scrutiny of the international community than it does with interest in upholding the law, Iranian Jews are pleased by any sign that their largely equal rights under the Islamic Republic may be preserved. As minorities go, Iran's Jews enjoy a much more comfortable relationship with the state than their co-religionists anywhere else in the region. The biggest challenges to life under the regime, they say, are shared by their fellow Iranians, whether Muslim or Armenian Christian.
Nonetheless, a degree of insecurity among Iran's Jews has emerged since the arrests, "We have lived here for 2,500 years," said Haroun Yashayai'i, representative of the Jewish Society of Tehran. "But now the entire community feels targeted."
