[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 88 (Tuesday, July 11, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1204-E1205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      ``TRIAL'' OF IRANIAN JEWS IS A CASE OF RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 11, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express outrage over the 
sentences handed down on July 1st in Iran against ten of thirteen 
Iranian Jews who were recently put on trial in that country. These 
people, who were charged with the crime of practicing their religion, 
were unfairly imprisoned for over a year while waiting for the Iranian 
government to conduct its trial. Now they have been found guilty in a 
sham legal proceeding.
  The trial--if it can be called a trial--was political intimidation 
not a judicial proceeding. This is a court with no jury, and one which 
holds its trials behind closed doors with the ``judge'' serving as both 
prosecutor and judge. The defendants were not able to choose their own 
representation in court.
  Furthermore, the thirteen individuals were not even indicted on the 
original charges that were brought against them. Originally the 
thirteen were arrested for teaching Hebrew and holding religious 
classes, and on these charges they were detained for over a year before 
being tried by the Iranian Revolutionary Court. It is significant that 
after detaining these innocent people on these trumped up charges for 
over a year, the Court was unable to provide any evidence other than 
the coerced confessions of the detainees.
  Mr. Speaker, I also wish to call the attention of my colleagues in 
the Congress to the actions of President Clinton, Secretary Albright 
and other Administration officials, as well as

[[Page E1205]]

other governments who successfully pressured the Iranian government to 
hand down jail terms instead of death sentences. Since the Islamic 
revolution in 1979, seventeen Jews have been executed, and if not for 
the forceful action of the White House, the Department of State, and 
other governments, that number would surely now be twenty-seven. While 
I want to express appreciation for these actions, I urge our 
Administration and other governments to maintain continued pressure to 
urge the Iranian government to overturn this decision of the 
Revolutionary Court and free these wrongly imprisoned victims.

                          ____________________